Adopted cannot enjoy the Adopter and the Inheritance both at once enjoy his father and the inheritance both at once till the adopting father be dead what is left him by the Adoptor doth not come into his hands But now herein lyeth another excellency of this Spirituall Adoption Every believer may at once enjoy both the Inheritance and the Father because he that adopteth him liveth for ever yea because his Father is his Inheritance So the truth standeth He that adopteth us to an Inheritance Himself is that Inheritance which he adopteth us to for we are adopted to the fruition of our God Psal 16. 5. The Lord is the portion of mine inheritance So that here is Father and Inheritance joyned both together because the Father is the Inheritance Lastly In Civill Adoption it is but some petty Inheritances 5. They are poor petty things that we are here adopted to which men are adopted to by their adopting fathers some poor things it may be a Farm or Lordship or Mannor What if it be a Kingdom It is in comparison but a poor thing to that Inheritance which Christ hath adopted us to which we shall find described to the life 1 Pet. 1. 4. To an inheritance incorruptible undefiled that fadeth not away reserved in heaven for you Here are the super-excellent properties of that Inheritance the consideration of which will exceedingly inhaunce this priviledge of Adoption First It is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 an incorruptible inheritance 1. An incorruptible Inheritance Whatsoever Inheritances we have here below they are liable to corruption If a man's estate lie in Mony that may rust or the thieves may break through and steal it If in Cattle they may die if in Houses they may be burnt if in Lands an enemy may invade them But here is an Inheritance that cannot be corrupted because it lyeth in God For the Father is our Inheritance and the immortall God is not lyable to any corruption Secondly It is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 an Inheritance undefiled 2. An Inheritance undefiled There are few inheritances here below but some defilement sticketh to them they are either ill got or ill kept An Inheritance may be got by oppression or if not so yet there may be defilement in the keeping of it He that commeth to inherit it may behave himself oppressively If when riches encrease the heart commeth to be set upon them there will be defilement with the inheritance But here is an Inheritance undefiled No unclean thing shall enter into heaven not so much as a Serpent to tempt in that Paradise that is above Mahomet telleth his followers of a defiled inheritance wherein there shall be a great deal of filthiness But Christ hath provided another kind of Inheritance for his which is without sin undefiled Thirdly It is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 an Inheritance that 3. An Inheritance that fadeth not away fadeth not away a Metaphor taken from flowers The beauty of a flower and the sweetnesse of it is quickly gone withereth in a moment and fit for nothing then but to be cast away So it is with all other temporall Inheritances they lose their glory after a while they cease to minister that content which a man hoped to have found in them which may be had at the first possessing of them yea all the glory of the world is like the flower of the field that fadeth away But herein lyeth the excellency of this Inheritance it fadeth not away It is a flower that never withereth their joyes are alwaies flourishing a continuall spring of flourishing consolations ariseth from the enjoyment of God and every day sweeter and sweeter Fourthly It is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 an inheritance 4. An Inheritance reserved reserved We cannot say so of temporall inheritances they may be gone A trick at Law may put a man out of his estate he may be wrangled out of it by some device or other an enemy may come and spoile him of it he can have no assurance Though men purchase houses and lands for themselves and their heirs for ever alas how soon are some men dead and gone and it may be the next generation knoweth no such houses or lands nor no such men But here is an inheritance reserved All the Devills in hell shall never wrangle a man out of This Possession reserved Lastly It is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 an inheritancc reserved 5. An Inheritance reserved in Heaven in heaven which is still a farther addition Whatsoever is in Heaven is excellent Many fading things are on earth The least thing in heaven is above the best things in the world And it is a consideration that addeth much to the sweetnesse of the Inheritance to consider where it lyeth As Who would not rather desire to have a small competency of land in England amongst his own friends where he was born than to have much in the Indies amongst strangers It is an Inheritance reserved in heaven which is our Country the Believer's home Every man is born from above 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 his kindred live in Heaven his Father is there and his Mother there We are strangers upon earth therefore our inheritance is in heaven which is much more worth than our inheritance below So excellent is this Inheritance Therefore how great is this love of Christ in giving us this priviledge to become the sons of God Secondly Let us learn from hence to judge of our How to know whether we be the sons of God estates how things stand between God and us whether we be sons and daughters yea or no nothing concerneth us more Therefore time spent in this scrutiny will be profitable Our Sonship is evidenced two waies By way of Testimony and By way of Inference First By way of Testimony So we come to know our 1. By the witnesse of the Spirit selves to be sons and daughters by the witnesse of the Spirit which ye read of Rom. 8. 16. The Spirit it self beareth witnesse to our spirits that we are the children of God This Spirit it is that keepeth the Records of Heaven The holy Ghost is conscious to all the secrets of God knoweth what names are written in the book of life therefore he is able to make them known to us None but the Son of God can Redeem and none but the Spirit of God can Assure so as to make your Evidences clear and infallible and above all doubt and fear But this doth not now lie so clear in my way Secondly It is therefore evidenced by way of Inference Vers 8 9. Our Sonship dependeth upon our receiving 2. By way of Inference Christ It may be inferred from hence As many as received him to them gave he power to become the sons of God Therefore every son of God hath received him and every one that hath received him may know himself to be the Son of God This I shall insist upon hoping you will excuse me
Pulpit but him that speaketh from Heaven which is Christ himself according to what we read Heb. 12. 25. See that ye refuse not him that speaketh For if they escaped not who refused him that spake on earth much more shall not we escape if we turn away from him that speaketh from heaven Christ speaketh from Heaven in every Sermon wherein truth is delivered unto you He saith to the drunkard from Heaven Become sober and to the wanton he saith from Heaven Become chaste to the unbeliever Lay hold on Christ It is said from Heaven when it is said from the Pulpit If men will go on in sin in spight of Heaven God will confound them in spight of the world they must to Hell in spight of the world Though hand joyn in hand they shall not go unpunished If men will not hear him speak on earth they must not expect to have him to hear when they would have Heaven That is the third thing Christ is called the word in reference to the word uttering because he is the substance of all his Father's Revelations and Promises Let us therefore learn from hence to grow in the knowledge of what we read and whatsoever we hear from the word of God because he is the substance of all Thus take any Scripture gage it and you will find Christ in the bottom of it If it be a Precept it leadeth you to Christ for strength to perform it If it be a Threat it leadeth you to Christ for grace to escape it If it be a Promise it clearly conveyeth Christ In him all the promises are Yea and Amen and therefore called Pretious promises not that they have any more price in them of themselves than any other Truths have but pretious promises That is a pretious Box that hath a rich Jewell in it Every Promise is pretious that hath Christ in more latitude than other places of Scripture have Therefore let us labour to find Christ in every one The old World had but one Promise for a great many years together from Adam to Abraham we read but of one Promise which God made to Adam in Paradise and yet Adam a holy man and Enoch a holy man and yet but one Promise Now we that have so many Promises cannot we find Christ in some of them to rely upon Having therefore these promises dearly Beloved let us cleanse our selves Let us seek for Christ and Cleansing in the Promises I have done now with the Subject of these three Propositions The Word The first thing that is predicated of the Word is that Propositi ∣ on 1 which we meet with in the first Proposition namely His eternall Existency In the beginning was the word The other Evangelists especially Matthew and Luke they have spoken fully of the temporall Generation of Christ So Matthew beginneth The book of the generation of Jesus Christ the son of David the son of Abraham Now John whose aim was to insist upon those things that concern the Divinity of Christ he beginneth with his Eternall Generation In the Beginning was the Word Beginning and was saith Basil these two terms are like two Anchors which the ship of a man's soul may safely ride at come what storms will come None of those Heresies that deny the Divinity of Christ shall be able to shame that man that layeth hold upon these In the beginning and Was. There was a Beginning when other things received their Beeing I but Christ was in that Beginning and so before the things had received their Beeing Much ado there is amongst Interpreters to little purpose to find out severall senses of this word Beginning I will not trouble you with them That of Mark will clearly give you the meaning of it In the beginning of the Creation of God Mar. 13. 19. Such as was not from the beginning of the Creation which God created Here is the thing clear The beginning of the Creation that God created is the same that Moses meaneth Gen. 1. 1. In the beginning God created heaven and earth It is something remarkable that Moses with whom God spake face to face and John the Evangelist who lay in Christ's bosome should both of them have one Exordium In the beginning saith Moses and In the beginning saith John It is thought that John doth allude to Moses onely with this clear difference Moses speaking of the Creation of the World saith In the beginning God made heaven and earth He speaks of a World that was made John speaking of a Word that was not made saith In the beginning was the word He doth not say He was made as if Christ were a creature but when all other creatures were made Christ was Christ had a Beeing when they did but begin to be therefore he was before them That which was in the beginning must needs be eternall Why Why because before the creatures began to be there was nothing but God What was before the Beginning Let that be the question Quest It will lead you into the Abysse of Eternity what may Answ be before the Creation Here Faith may enter into the darknesse of Eternity where it may lose it self and can see nothing but God before all and God after all and God in all Before the Creation nothing but God Christ was before the Creation when they began to be he was Therefore Christ was Eternall there was no beginning before that Indeed there was God before the Creation but God hath no beginning Though there be principium ordinis there is not principium temporis as the Father first and The Father Son and holy Ghost Eternall Son secondly and the holy Ghost the third Here is principium ordinis Order but no Time wherein the Father Son or holy Ghost began to be So Christ was in the beginning had a beeing then There was no beginning till the Creation Therefore Christ was from all Eternity This may be confirmed with more strength because the holy Ghost throughout the Scripture when he would expresse Eternity useth to do it thus Such a thing was before the world that is it was Eternall Psal 90. 1 2. Lord thou hast been our dwelling place in all generations Before the mountains were brought forth or ever thou hadst formed the earth or the world from everlasting to everlasting thou art God How proveth he that Because he was before the Mountains or Earth was made Christ was before the world therefore God from everlasting to everlasting Joh. 17. 5. Now O Father glorifie thou me with thine own self with the glory which I had with thee before the world was That is from Eternity Take a clear place for those that clearly apprehend Christ to be meant by Wisdom as undoubtedly He is Prov. 8. 22. and so forward to the 30 verse a place to which our Evangelist is thought to have alluded here and it is fully parallel where Wisdom saith The Lord possessed me in the beginning of his waies Just as in the
concerning the Divinity of Christ which is the very end for which they bring this argument The builder of all things is God Heb. 3. 4. Christ was the builder of all things saith my Text. Therefore Christ is God In the beginning God Created Heaven and Earth and Sea and all therein saith Moses Christ created Heaven and Earth and the Sea saith my Syllogism Text. Therefore Christ is God To bring things together that are infinitly distant requireth an infinite power The distance which is between Beeing and No-beeing is infinite Therefore He must needs be God that can bring all things out of nothing and he that Createth doth so This exalteth God above all Idolls None of them can make a World So the Apostle argueth Act. 14. to turn them from Idolls to the living God 15. vers We are men of like passion with you and preach to you that you should turn from these Idolls to the living God which made Heaven and earth and all things therein Justin Martyr quoteth two Greek verses out of Pythagoras to prove there is but one God 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. saith Pythagoras If any will assume to himself and say I am God except onely one let him lay such a Worid as this is to stake and say This World is mine then I will believe him otherwise not He is God that made the World Christ made the World Therefore he is God Secondly It instructeth us concerning the Excellency of Christ above all things By him were all things made Therefore he himself must needs be better then all things for he made them The cause is better then the effect The Carpenter better than the house and the Shipright then the ship Look whatsoever excellency is in the Creature it All creature excellency is from Christ came from Christ Therefore he hath a greater excellency than the Creature hath Yea whatsoever are in the Creatures they meet in Christ Therefore it is that there are names borrowed from all the most excellent Creatures to decipher Christ by in Scripture to shew that all their excellencies are eminently in Him from whom they have their beeing Amongst things in earth that have barely a beeing the most excellent are Jewells and pretious Stones Christ taketh a name from thence He is called the Corner-stone elect pretious 1 Pet. 2. So Isa 28. he is the great pretious stone the Jewell of Jewells Amongst Vegetables Plants and Trees the most excellent is the Vine and Olive Christ is the true Vine Joh. 15. and the good Olive-tree Rom. 11. Amongst Beasts that have sense the most excellent amongst wild Beasts is the Lion and amongst tame Beasts the Lamb Christ taketh name from these The Lamb of God that taketh away the sins of the world Joh. 1. The Lion of the tribe of Judah as in the Revelations And so if ye look up into Heaven the most excellent Quality is the Light the most excellent Luminary is the Sun Christ hath names from both these This is the true light that lighteneth every man that commeth into the world And The Sun of Righteousnesse with healing under his wings Mal. 4. So as it sheweth to us in the second place the excellency of Christ above all things Thirdly It instructeth us concerning the primitive good 3. Christ so good as to make nothing ill of all the Creatures they are all of Christ's making and therefore must needs be good good in themselves and good to us For he is so good as that he can make nothing ill He beareth such affection to us as that he will do us no harm He that in fulnesse of time was made for us of a Woman made under the Law will make all things usefull for us that he undertakes to create It is true many things are now become hurtfull to man Whence commeth this Not from Christ It is said by Moses in the end of the Creation God looked upon the works of his creation and behold they were all good If any thing be evill now in the end of the world we may thank our selves and the Devill for that for they came all good from Christ Therefore let not us play the Balaam and beat the Asse when we are in the fault as he did Jude telleth you vers 15 16. of a generation of men and the world is full of them that are Murmurers and Complainers men that alwaies find fault with what God hath made their lot This very consideration might help us to complain of our selves not of God not of the Creator As Physitians sometimes do when a man bleedeth excessively at the nose they open a vein in the arme to divert the blood If we will be complaining here is a diversion Our complaint should onely be against sin not against God we should complain of our sinne that hath brought all this misery kill sinne and all is good Nothing more frequent then for a man to deal with God as Hiram did with Solomon 1 King 9. 11 12 13. It is there said that Solomon gave Hiram twenty Citties in the land of Galilee and he came out from Tyre to see the Citties which Solomon had given him and they pleased him not and he said What Citties are these which thou hast given me and he called them the land of Cabul to this day which signifieth Dirty Solomon had bestowed Cities upon Hiram and in all likelyhood they stood in very fertile places only they had this Inconveniencie with their fertility they were Mire and Dirty therefore he was displeased at them God hath bestowed many blessings upon us and yet if there be any dirt goeth along with the fruit many times the fattest soile is lyable to that we are apt to call them Cabul never looking at God that gave them Let us remember that all creatures as they came from God are good Therefore if we will be finding fault find fault with our selves I now come to the Consolations Vse First here is matter of Comfort in case of the want of the Of Consolation in case of Want Creatures When men are destitute either of temporall blessings ot spirituall blessings that belong to the new creature Let them solace themselves in this Though the creatures be wanting if faith be not wanting they have Christ that made them all and they may have the comforts of all in Him Thus the Psalmist comforteth himself in such a case Psal 146. 5 6. He had said before Put not your trust in princes nor in the sons of men in whom there is no help His breath goeth forth he returneth to the earth in that very day his thoughts perish Here he speaketh against the creatures the greatest men Princes they are gone What followeth Man's happinesse in trusting in God and not in Man Happy is he that hath the God of Jacob for his help whose hope is in the Lord his God who made heaven and earth and the sea and all that is therein
in some wants but here is their comfort they have an inheritance laid up for them and that is a rich one They are now in their nonage when they come to heaven they shall have enough In all dangers let it be considered what care their Father taketh for them because they are his children Are they not all ministring spirits sent forth to minister for them who shall be heirs of salvation An heir of a great family what shall he need to fear so long as he is conversing among his fathers servants All the creatures are such to God and thou being a child thou art amongst thy Father's servants and therefore needest to fear no danger from them Fourthly In case of spirituall faintings and fears and 4. In case of spirituall faintings fears and desertion desertions The soul of a believer sometimes fainteth away for fear David saith My heart and flesh fail me Here is now a swounding child consider what fathers are wont to do in such cases how they send out for help presently all the house is little enough to look after a child in such a condition God himself pittieth his swounding children and sendeth his Ministers yea his own Spirit to speak comfort to such and to administer some Aquavitae to them some water of life that he may fetch them again out of their faintings Sometimes fear possesseth a child of God perhaps of falling into desertion as it is possible such may befall the dearest of God's Saints as with Heman who thought himself free amongst the dead God sometimes doth this but sal 88. 5. still as a Father As a father that seeth his child ready to run into a river or into the mire he will take the child and make him believe he will throw him in but it is to make him fearfull of being thrown in So God makes his children believe that he will throw them into hell it self but it is for this very end and purpose that they may never come there for this fear will keep them from the waies of hell Yea sometimes God is pleased to desert his own children Sion saith My God hath forgotten me as it is in Isaiah but then it is no more but as when a father goeth behind a door and suffereth his child to cry after him and hideth himself on purpose to try the affections of the child to make him the more eager in the pursuit of his father which done then he discovereth himself Just so it is with God He withdraweth the light of his countenance not on purpose to keep it so for ever but to make it more endeared to his children As the Prophet speaketh In a little while I hid Isa 54. 8. my face from thee for a moment but with everlasting kindnesse will I have mercy on thee saith the Lord thy God and thy Redeemer Lastly Here is comfort in case of approaching death a 5. In case of approaching death time when men stand much in need of comfort when they are to leave all their outward comforts in this world therefore they had need of better Now if a man can say in assurance of faith as Christ did Father I commend my spirit Luk. 23. 46. into thy hands Here is an everlasting consolation a Fort that all the devills in hell cannot batter A man that in his life-time hath got acquaintance with God may with confidence commend his soul to God as to a Father when he dieth Other people may leave an estate behind them and men may look after that A man may commend his estate to his friend and his body to the grave and some may have so much charity as to interr that But whom shall he commend his soul to It is not for every man to think to commend his spirit to God with confidence Upon what acquaintance will God say can you do this Will we trust our Jewels to any but our best friends will we put them into the hands of those that we never saw in our lives No. But a man that hath known God for his Father he will with confidence say Father into thy hands I commend my spirit I do not onely lay my Jewell at thy feet but put it into thy hands that so it may be safe in thy custody I commend it into thy hands out of which all the devills in hell shall never be able to pull it With this confidence Paul believed Happy is that soul that is able to say as our Saviour did before his Ascension to his Disciples I go to my Father and to your Father and to my God and your God When a man is able to look his friends in the face though with a dying look and shall say Be of good comfort I shall be no loser I go to my Father and your Father Blessed are the people that are in Joh. 20. 17. such a case Blessed are the people whose God is the Lord. Blessed are the people that have received Jesus Christ aright and so are become sons of Adoption I have now done with that Point and shall go on Vers 13. Which were born not of blood nor of the will of the flesh nor of the will of man but of God This verse containeth a further description of them that received Christ They were described in the 12 Verse by their faith And in this 13 Verse they are described by their birth To them that believe in his Name which were born not of blood nor of the will of the flesh nor of the will of man but of God Their birth concerning which we are here told First what is not the efficient Cause of it Secondly what is First what is not the efficient Cause of it Three things are here removed 1. Blood 2. The will of the flesh 3. The will of man Secondly what is God and God onely I shall take the Clauses as they lye in order First I shall shew That Believers as such are not born of blood Secondly That they are born not of the will of the flesh Thirdly not of the will of man But Fourthly they are born of God First Believers as such They are not born of blood 1. Believers are not born of blood what is that Ye know in our ordinary manner of speech we are used to make mention of base blood Noble blood blood Royall and accordingly they are said to be born of blood to intimate that they have not grace from their Ancestors It doth not come to them by descent We say of many diseases that such and such come of a blood because they are derived from parents They are not born of blood to shew that the work of grace is not derived from one's Ancestors Therefore the word in the originall is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 we are not born of bloods We may think it on purpose to be put in to meet with that mistake of the bragging of the Jewes who still boast to be the sons of Abraham Joh.
Divine A word too much scorned now a daies 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 why because he did set forth 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 He is called Divine because he held forth the Divinity of the Word namely of Christ Others did it as well as He. But not so much Ye shall find Luke calling Christ the Word in that place though not often yet worthy your noting Luke 1. 2. Even as they delivered them unto us which from the beginning were eye witnesses and Ministers of the Word What is that not Preachers of the Gospell but 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 followers of Jesus Christ St. Luke had that relation from the Apostles themselves who were eye-witnesses of Christ and from the Seventy Disciples who were likewise servants of the Word And in all reason this must be the sense that by Word here Luke should mean the Lord Jesus Christ because it suiteth so well with what the other Apostles said As John begins his Epistle He telleth them he would speak to them of whom they had heard and seen of the Word of Life 1 John 1. 1. That which was from the beginning which we have heard and seen with our eyes and have look't upon and have handled of the Word of Life So Luke telleth them he spake what he received By Luke from the Ministers of the Word Which suiteth with that place 2 Pet. 1. 16. We have not followed cunningly devised fables when we made known to you the power and coming of Jesus Christ but we were eye-witnesses of his Majesty But if this be not the meaning then consider How much wanting doth Luke seem to be to his Readers He intendeth to write of Jesus Christ and to make a Preface of Christ and fully mentioneth him whom he intendeth to write upon Ye shall find Paul calling Christ the VVord in that fare-well-speech of his to the Church of Ephesus By Paul which is recommended Act. 20. 32. Now brethren I commend you to God and to the VVord of his grace which is able to build you up and to give you an inheritance among all them which are sanctified I know this place is commonly interpreted of the Gospell and that the Gospell is called the VVord of Grace in another place of the Acts of the Apostles but yet they question whether that be the meaning here or no and that upon this ground because that Word is here meant to which the Saints are commended Now the Gospell is commended to the Saints but the Saints are not commended to the Gospell But some other Word is here meant that is Christ I commend you to God namely to God the Father and to the VVord namely to Christ Indeed for the Gospell to be commended to the Saints is an usuall thing 2 Tim. 1. 13 14. Hold fast Usuall for the Gospel to be commended to the Saints not the Saints to the Gospel the form of sound words which thou hast heard of me in faith and love which is in Jesus Christ That good thing which was committed to thee keep by the holy Ghost which dwelleth in us And so in the second Chapter of that Epistle vers 2. The things that thou hast heard of me amongst many witnesses the same commit thou to faithfull men Here is the Gospell committed to the Saints But where do you find the Saints committed to the Gospell To God ye find them committed again and again Act. 4. 26. Having commended them to the grace of God Here are men commended to God And so in that sense I take it here I commend you to God and to the Word of his grace to Jesus Christ who is called The VVord of his Christ the Author of Grace and Reconciliation with God grace here because it is Christ that God is reconciled to us by He is the Author of all that grace and reconciliation and favour which we have with God So understand the VVord of grace as you understand the VVord of life that is Christ clearly VVhat we have heard and seen of the VVord of life that is Christ the Author of that Ye shall find Paul calling Christ by the name of the VVord in another place which is commonly otherwise interpreted Heb. 4. 12. The word of God is quick and powerfull and sharper than any two-edged sword piercing even to the dividing asunder of soul and spirit and of the joynts and marrow and is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart Neither is there any creature that is not manifest in his sight but all things are naked and open to the eyes of him with whom we have to do The VVord clearly here is a Person I say a Person for the VVord of God is quick All things are manifest in His sight All things are naked and open in the eyes of Him He and Him and His these imply that the Apostle speaketh of a Person not of the Word revealed but of the Essentiall vord of God which is Christ Not but that something may agree to the revealed Word because it hath the stamp of Christ upon it but something cannot be given to it The Word is a Revealer of the thoughts of the heart when it is powerfully Preached But Who can properly say of the word that every creature is naked and open before the word of God Before Christ every creature is open Christ is called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the searcher of all hearts in a proper sense Take the end of the thirteen Verse All things are naked and open to the eye of him the word namely with whom we have to do Our Translation readeth it thus which the Originall doth very well bear All things are open to the eye of him to whom we must give an account 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 not With whom we have to do but To whom we must give an account 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 there signifieth Account compared to Rom. 14. 12. So then every one of us shall give an account of himself to God 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the same word that is in Heb. 12. To whom must we give account to the revealed Word No but to the Word that is to Jesus Christ We must all stand before the judgment-seat of Christ Heb. 12. 13. The very word that is in this place speaks expresly of Christ Seeing then we have a great high Priest that is passed into the heavens for us let us do so and so The Word is the same with the High Priest The second Quere then is this Why is Christ rather Quaere 2 called by this tearm The Word than by the name of the Why Christ is called the VVord rather than the Son of God Son of God here in the beginning of this Gospell why doth not John rather say The Son of God was in the beginning and was God and was with God But In the beginning was the Word Why for this reason probably because he would not at first alienate the hearts of his Readers
Tent upon Earth as the word signifieth Joh. 1. 17. He dwelt amongst us 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that is as in a Tent or Tabernacle Do but consider the difference of these two states that which Christ left and that which Christ took The former was a state of incomprehensible glory In the beginning was the Word and the Word was with God What was the state of the Word See Joh. 17. 5. Now O Father glorifie thou me with thine own self with the glory which I had with thee before the world was I had with thee glory before the world was Here is the Word with God in the state of glory From this state of glory he is pleased to descend To what To take shame It is emphatically said for that is one half of Christ's sufferings Shame is Heb. 12. 2. Looking to Jesus the Author and Finisher of our faith who for the joy that was set before him endured the crosse and despised the shame He came to Isa 53. 3 Luk. 23. 36 39 Luk. 17. 34. Matth. 9. 11 34. Matth. 12. 24. 10. 25. be buffeted and spit upon and reviled and called a friend of publicans and sinners a wine-bibber yea the prince of devills They called Christ Beelzebub Before he came into the world he was in a state of Joy as well as of Glory The Text saith He was with God and wheresoever God is there is joy as the Psalmist saith In thy presence is fulnesse of joy and at thy right hand are pleasures for evermore What is that Christ took instead of joy He came to sorrow sorrow and deadly sorrow surrounded his soul on every side From that eternall joy he is pleased to descend to those intolerable sorrows to be a man of sorrows acquainted with grief Blessed Saviour may we well say Isa 53. 3. What a change hast thou made for thy love to us of being with God to be with Man from the Father's Bosom to the Virgin 's Womb from Heaven to Earth from Glory as ye have heard to Shame and from Joy to Grief And all this for our sakes Ye know the grace of our Lord Jesus 2 Cor. 8. 9. Christ saith the Apostle who though he were rich yet for your sakes he became poor that ye through his poverty might become rich How should this fir'e and inflame our hearts with love to Christ He who was the delight of his Father from all Eternity had his delight with the sons of men How should the sons of men have their delight in him Hath Christ left Heaven for me and shall not I leave the world for Christ Hath he thus emptyed himself for me of his Joy and Glory for a time and shall not I deny my self for him in my pleasures and profits and ease What a poor sorry joy is that which the world affordeth us to that which Christ hath first given us Let us love him who loved us so as that he was pleased to become Emmanuel God with us So The Word was with God This is that which concerneth the Personall Co-existency of Christ with God the Father In the Beginning was the Word and the Word was with God and the Word was God There is hardly any place of Scripture more abused in a way of superstition than the beginning of this Gospell It was a common thing in times of Popery and I would to God it were abolished wholly at this day to write these words in certain Characters and to tye the paper or parchment about people's necks as a Charm against Agues or as a Spell to prevent some other mischief We shall I hope make better use of them by how much this Scripture hath been wronged by others These words are a Charm indeed but it is against Hereticall Opinions and carnall discouragements The Deniers of Christ's Divinity never had such a Charm as this is Joh. 11. We have made some of them to that end and hope to make more as we do proceed The Fifth Use from hence is that this very Proposition Vse 5 that the Word was with God holdeth forth Comfort to us For he that was with God in the beginning is with him still and will be with him for everlasting with God then and with God now and with God to all eternity And that under the notion of our Advocate 1 Joh. 2. 1 2. If any man Christ our Advocate sin we have an Advocate with the Father So the phrase is here With the Father Jesus Christ the righteous and he is the propitiation for our sins He is there as an Advocate to plead a cause And what cause His own as well as ours We know when a Counsellor is employed in a Cause that concerneth himself as well as his Clyent he is wont to be exceeding active in that businesse more than in other he will neglect no opportunity in such a Cause So Christ is such an Advocate as to be a Propitiation for our sins And Christ should lose the price of his own Blood if our Cause should miscarry before God the Father with him where he appeareth for us Heb. 9. 24. Christ is not entred into the holy places made with hands which are the figures of the true but into Heaven it self to appear in the presence of God for us Observe that With God and For us He appeareth there as an Advocate appeareth for his Clyent when such a Cause is called upon he pleadeth that Cause as an Advocate So Christ appeareth for us as our Proctor He is God with us and for us and therefore able to save to the uttermost all that come to God by him because he liveth to make intercession for them Heb. 7. 25. Never fear that any thing shall be wanting to thy salvation Christ will be sure to perfect it He will save to the uttermost because he liveth for ever Well may Satan's accusations trouble us on Earth they shall never trouble us in Heaven for Christ appeareth there for us He is ever with the Father I passe now to the third Clause of this first Verse which concerneth the Divine Essence of Christ The Word was God So with God a distinct Person from the Father as to be God of the same Essence with the Father The word God is taken essentially for the Father the First-Person in the Trinity This is a point of high concernment that Christ is God so high as whosoever buildeth not upon this buildeth upon the sands This is the Rock of our salvation The Word was God But there will be frequent occasion in this Gospell of meeting with it and therefore I shall speak now but briefly of it Take a few clear places such as our enemies know not how to evade that in Rom. 9. 5. Of whom as concerning the flesh Christ came who is over all God blessed for evermore Christ is here himself called God blessed for ever So Tit. 2. 13. Looking for that blessed hope and the glorious appearance of
Wherefore my Brethren pray that ye may understand these things for indeed they are things that depend upon Revelation therefore they call for prayer Saith Bernard of the Mystery of the Trinity The best way of seeking it and the easiest way of finding it is not to enter upon Disputings but Prayer To Prayer add the use of the best Means reading the Word of God in which these Mysteries are revealed that concern the Eternity and Personality and Divinity of Jesus Christ Scripture will help you more then Reason here There are two sorts of things Some things there are which we do first understand and then believe Others which we first believe and then come to understand If ye Naturall things are first understood then believed Supernaturals not so go to naturall things first ye understand them apprehend the inside and outside of them and then believe them because ye understand them But now in these great supernaturall Mysteries that ye may understand them you must first believe them For this there are two rules If ye will first set Reason on work believe no more then ye can find out in these Mysteries That will hinder Faith But if after ye have believed them ye will set reason a work that may help faith The Arians of old that denied the Divinity of Christ they got a great deal of advantage especially over Women by putting questions for grounds of reason to them They were wont to come to Women and The Arians delusion and sophistry aske them Hast thou born a Child say they Yes And art thou not older then the Child thou hast born why yes say they And yet say they our Adversaries They tell us that God hath a Son and that the Son is Co-eternall with the Father Athanasius goeth to work to confute them thus I aske you a question Canst thou build a house without Timber and Stone and other Materialls no yet God made the World without any of these things If Gods building be not as an Artificer's God made the World without Materialls He hath his Son from Eternity but not as a naturall parent for who can declare his generation If ye will aske a question Ask the Sun if ever it were without its beams Aske the Sun if it did not shine as soon as it was Created And aske the Fountain if ever it was without its streams As the Sun was never without its beams nor the Fountain without its streams so God was never without his Son In the beginning was the Word and the Word was with God and the Word was God both Co-existent and Eternall Vers 3. All things were made by Him and without Him was not any thing made that was made Who is here meant by Him the fore-going verses tell you namely the Word And who is meant by the Word ye have heard at large namely Christ Whose Divinity the Evangelist had affirmed vers 1. The Word was God confirmed in the second verse The same was in the beginning with God And here he proveth it by a new argument from the Creation of the World All things were made by Him and without Him was nothing made that was made Now the Apostle telleth you Hebr. 3. 4. He that built Syllogism all things is God Christ built all things saith my Text Therefore Christ is God The argument lieth fair and undeniable But whereas the Apostle Paul speaks of a new Creation we are hinted to think of a double Creation There is the old Creation and the new Creation Now some Hereticks make a question which of the two is here meant There is the old Creation spoken of by Moses in Genesis In the beginning God Created Heaven and Earth And there is the new Creation spoken of by Paul 2 Cor. 5. 17. If any man be in Christ he is a new Creature old things are past away behold all things are become New The question is which of these the Text is meant of All things were made by Him Socinus who denieth the Socinus his damnable heresie and opinion Divinity of Christ together with his Satisfaction maketh it to lay hold upon the latter of these and saith that in the Text ye must understand the new Creation As In the beginning was the Word He understandeth the beginning of the Gospell not of the World All things were made by Him that is all things were made new when Christ was born of the Virgin Mary These are the all things meant in the Text saith Socinus As this is not true so it will not serve his turn It is not true nor consonant to the Text which doth not say that all things were made new by Him but that all things were made by Him and undeniably spoken of the Creation of the World Neither will it serve his turn He hopeth by this evasion to avoid the dint of this argument taken from the Creation of the World to prove the Divinity of Christ but it faileth him for take that which he granteth By all things here we must mean the new things the new Creature If this be the thing we will prove Christ to be God in spight of Socinus For who can turn a heart of stone into an heart of flesh who can work faith and love faith in an unbelieving heart love in an hating heart and meeknesse in a passionate heart who but God! Do not these things declare an Almighty power This by his owne Confession proves him to be God But we are to understand it of the old Creation of the World which Moses telleth us of All things were made by Him that is the proposition An illustration of it in the following words without Him was nothing made that was made In the proposition observe two things First the Effect All things were made Secondly The Efficient By Him This is an excellent help and of great Concernment The making of all things is the first lesson that God Almighty teacheth us in the Bible In the beginning the Lord made Heaven and Earth Therefore worthy the dwelling a while upon and making inquiry into these five things for the clearing of these words First What are the things here meant Secondly In what Order Thirdly In what space of time Fourthly In what manner Fifthly To what end were they all made When these are done we shall come clearly to shew that the Lord Jesus Christ had an influence as the Efficient cause of all these All things were made by Him First What things are here meant All things These 1. All things are here meant are words of a vast Comprehension but you shall find them all reduced to four heads by God himselfe In the fourth Commandement Exod. 20. 11. In six dayes the Lord made Heaven and Earth the Sea and all things that are therein These are the heads of the All things First the Heaven Heaven is a fair building a glorious Fabrick of three Stories the first second and third Heaven 1. Heaven So Paul
teacheth us to distinguish when he speaks of his being rapt up into the third Heaven Therefore there is a second and first as well as a third And these three Heavens were sweetly resembled by those three Courts in Solomons Temple There was the first Court the outward Court and the Court of the Gentiles which was common for all sorts of people to come into So is the first Heaven here below Men breathe in the aire birds and beasts they live and breathe in the aire which is the first Heaven The second Court was something more hidden In that the golden Candlesticks were which were the Lights that lighted the Temple So are the Sun Moon and Stars in the second Heaven The third Court was the Holy of Holies into which entred none but the high Priest And the third Heaven is the Heaven of Heavens into which Jesus Christ the high Priest is entred to prepare a place for all his Members All these Heavens were of Christ's making Hebr. 110. Thou Lord in the beginning hast laid the foundations of the World and the Heavens are the work of thy Hands The second head is the Earth the Circle of the World the pavement of this glorious Fabrick the foot-stool of the 2. Earth most high God Of his making it you have an excellent expression in Job Job 38. 4 5 6. Where wast thou when I laid the foundations of the Earth saith God there declare if thou hast understanding who hath laid the measure thereof if thou knowest or who hath stretched out the line thereof wherein are the foundations thereof fastned or who laid the Corner-stone thereof God hath so made it as to make it The admirablenesse of the fabrick of the Earth admirable to our understandings that such a vast body as the Earth is of a round figure and so fit for motion should be still immoveable a body so heavy should yet be able to hang as it doth in the midst of the air Why God hath fastned it by a Word of his own power Job 26. 7. He stretcheth out the North over the empty place and hangeth the Earth upon nothing Which of us can hang a ball in the aire without some support God He hangeth the Earth how upon nothing but upon the aire without side of it Then Thirdly the Sea Psal 95. 5. The sea is his and He made it so as to make all men rejoyce in the thoughts of it 3. Sea Psal 97. 1. The Lord reigneth let the Earth rejoyce let the multitude of the Isles be glad thereof It is with an Emphasis All sorts of men that dwell in Islands have much cause to rejoyce because God reigneth For if He did not Reign and Rule and bound the Seas with which they are compassed they would quickly be destroyed If God did God boundeth the Seas being above the Earth else the Islands would be destroyed not reign the naturall place of the Sea is above the Earth and how should we in this Island be overflowed in a moment if He bounded not the seas Ye shall see an elegant comparison in Job 38. 8 9 10. Who shutteth up the Sea with doors when it breaketh forth as if it had issued out of the Womb when I made the Clouds the garments thereof and thick darknesse a swadling band for it and brake up for it my decree'd place and set barres and doors Here he compareth the sea to a Child breaking out of the Womb of his Decree to a Child swadled as it were with a Cloud That is the expression Thick darknesse hath swadling bands for it And it is rock't as it were in a Cradle of Providence The fourth head is These All things as that place in Exodus telleth you are the things that are within this Heaven 4. All things and Earth and Sea And all things therein Which Paul reduceth to two heads Things Visible and Things Invisible Col. 1. 16. By Him were all things Created that are in Heaven and Earth visible and invisible Zanchius addeth a third branch to this distinction and maketh it more plain by saying That all things that were made are either visible or invisible or mixt Visible things as the Stars and Fouls and Clouds of Heaven the fish in the sea and beasts upon the earth Invisible things as the Angells they also were made They were not the Makers of the World as some Hereticks have thought Then there is a third sort of Creatures which are of a mixt nature partly visible in regard of their bodies and partly invisible in regard of their souls and those are Men. And so you have The all things Not to stand upon that I will passe to another head Secondly let us Consider In what order these things were made That so we may learn the more to magnifie the 2. In what Order Creatour This ye shall have under sundry Considerations No way more profitable First all things were made so in such an order as that 1. Heaven made before the Earth Heaven a place of blessednesse was made before the Earth the Stage of vanity In the beginning God created Heaven and Earth To teach us that we should begin our search and desires and love where God began his Work first at Heaven and then at Earth It is a Praeposterous course that is taken to begin with earth God did not so He first made the Heavens First seek the Kingdome of God Math. 6. 33. And yet through the Corruption of mens souls Curvae in terras animae Coelestium inanes The most are bowed down to the Earth and few look up towards Heaven There are in the Militant Church some dead and some living Children some true and some false Professors Suppose a Woman should have a dead and a living Child together in her Womb. The dead Child would make no way for his birth the living would so it is here such as are dead Professors in the Womb of the Church they do not make forward towards Heaven But every living soul that is born for Heaven and ordained for Heaven will to Heaven Every soul that is baptized with the Holy Ghost and with Fire hath a fire in it that will carry it up Heaven-ward Secondly as in order to the Creation Things of lesse perfection 2. Things lesse-perfect before more-perfect in the visible world were made before things that are more perfect as if ye come to the visible World especially not that otherwise the invisible Heavens are more perfect then any thing we see But I say the visible World God in the work of Creation went from things lesse perfect to those that had more perfection in them First he made the Elements then the mixt bodies compounded of them and amongst them such as had life before those that had sense and such as had sense before those that had reason A thing profitable to observe that so ye may look at Gods method both in Nature and Grace His method is
to begin with the lowest and so goe upward to begin with lesse perfection and so go on to more Do we aime at the top of Grace Wee must climb up by certain steps The New Creature goeth on as the Old Creature dyeth from the lesse perfect to the more perfect Never expect Love and Fear and Joy and all at the first God's work will be going on still from lesse to more perfection Thirdly as to the poynt of order in the making of all 3. The essentiall part of the world made before its Ornaments things God he made the Essentiall part of the World before he made their Ornaments As ye know he made the the Heaven and Earth and Sea before he made their furniture before He furnished the Heaven with Starres and the Earth with Plants and Beasts and the Sea with Fishes To teach us to look in the poynt of Grace too for the like proceeding There are Essentiall Graces and Graces that tend to Ornament Essentiall Graces that goe to the Constitution of a Christian Such are Faith and Love And accessary graces that tend to his Ornament and well-being Such are joy and assurance Observe now Gods method He first begins with the most essentiall happinesse but he that by faith layeth hold on Christ and by love cleaveth to Christ it may be God will make him stay some time for his Ornaments before he furnisheth him with full Assurance even as a Heaven before starres to furnish it Again It may be observed in order of Gods Creation 4. He made things dependent before the things they depend upon That he made some things which now depend upon others before the things upon which they depend For instance the light ye know dependeth upon the Sun the Sun being removed we shall have no light but yet God made the light before any Sun The light was the work of the second day and the Sun not made till afterwards The growing of Plants and Fruits now depend much upon the husbandry of men and upon showers and rain yet God made them before any raine or any man to till the ground Gen. 2. 5. Every plant of the field before it was in the earth and before it grew for the Lord had not caused it to rain upon the earth and there was not a man to till the ground To teach us thus much That all the Creatures though they be subordinate one to another doe yet depend more upon God the first Cause then upon any second Cause And to let us understand That we have reason to depend upon God though we see no meanes He that can maintain a light without a Sun and cause things to grow without rain he can maintain grace in thy heart though thou hast no means or but small means of thriving in that way I do but hint these things by the way as profitable Observations from the Creation of the World Lastly in poynt of order God made Man last of all He ye know was the workmanship of the sixth day and that to 5. He made Man last of all the end we might see both his wisdome and his goodnesse a great deal of wisdome in this That after God had raised such a glorious Fabrick as the world is he should do as sometimes men are wont to do A man that buildeth suppose a Library or Exchange or some such Monumentall place It is usuall for such persons to send their Pictures thither and to have them hanged up therein that all may know at whose charge that was done So God made the World and furnisheth it and then sendeth his own Picture and maketh man after his own Image and putteth him into the World And at such a time as the Wisdome of God had provided it and furnished it That man should be so made as to let him see that he was made to serve God as other things to serve him Therefore he is not created till the latter end of the sixth day immediately before the Sabbath that so the first work which he takes in hand might be the worship of God that made him Here is wisedome and goodnesse in this aboundant goodness God would not invite man unto bare walls but first he buildeth and furnisheth a house and then bringeth his guest into the house that Man at first might taste and see how good the Lord was And that all men might learn for ever to trust him He that provided for us a being will he not now he hath given us a being maintain us These things I observe to you from the Order Thirdly Let us inquire into the space of Time wherein 3. In what space of time all these things were made I do it the rather to let you see what Doctrine may be sucked out of these first Principles of Religion In six dayes the LORD created Heaven and Earth the Sea and all things therein Here are divers Considerations to be deduced from hence 1. God could have done all things in a moment yet it pleased him to be six dayes about this great work Dayes 1. To teach us Deliberation and not Moments First to teach us the necessity of Deliberation in all matters of Consequence We understand God could have done all in a Moment but he was pleased to take time about it that he might thereby inform us of the necessity of taking time when we undertake things of Consequence Many a man doth that in haste that he Serius absolvit qui nimiùm properat repenteth him of at leisure whereas he should not have had cause to repent if he would have taken leisure in doing of it Dan. 2. 16. He required time of the King when he had a hard taske Secondly dayes and not years Here is an observeable 2. To blesse God more for Redeeming us than for Making us difference between the work of Creation and the work of Redemption The one was finished in six dayes but it cost Christ three and thirty years pilgrimage upon earth before he came to say It is finished So much more noble is the one work than the other So much doe we owe more to God for his having Redeemed us than for his having Made us There is not one of us but oweth himself to God for his Creation If we had a thousand yea ten thousand selves we should owe them all to Christ for our Redemption because that is the greater worke it tooke God a longer time Thirdly in poynt of time All things were made in six distinct severall dayes That so God might help us the better 3. To help us the better to understand the making of all things to understand this great work It is too vast for us to comprehend at once The making of all things Therefore God was pleased to cast it into six severall dayes that so he might follow his work in our meditations Moses saith Such a day was such and such a Creature made that we might runne through all
the Creatures as it were by these severall stages and let our affections goe on as God went on in working Fourthly But six dayes De Posse God might have done 4. To see how great things God can do in a short time it in a moment But defacto he did it in six dayes We see how great a thing God can do in a short time That which men and Angells could not have done though he had given them a thousand millions of years to have perfected it Thirteen years was Solomon a building the first Temple And forty yeares were the Jews a building the second Temple Here in six dayes Heaven and Earth and Sea and All things therein are made Therefore trust God be thou never so low in thy estate or name or body or Soul He that raised the World out of nothing in six dayes how soon is he able to raise thee to a Competencie of these things Lastly Six dayes and no more God cast it so as we may 5. To limit us a time of working think on purpose to limit us a time of working and a time of resting He himself wrought six dayes and rested the seaventh day from all his works To teach us That we should have six dayes to labour in and keep the seaventh as a Sabbath Levit. 23. 3. Six dayes shalt thou labour but the seaventh day is the Sabbath of rest an holy Convocation ye shall do no work therein It is the Sabbath of the Lord in all your dwellings That is the third thing Ye have heard what these All-things are In what order they were made And in what space of time they were created See now next In what manner they were created Fourthly In what manner were they made They were made by the sole word of God without instruments 4. In what manner without materialls meerly by the word of Command Psal 148. 5 6. Praise him ye Heaven of heavens and ye waters that be above the Heavens let them praise the name of the Lord for he commanded and they were created He hath established them for ever and ever he hath made a decree which shall not passe You read of no Instruments Solomon could not make a Temple but he must have a thousand of Tools God doth but speak the word and the earth was made You read of no materials out of which he made the world What can men make if you give them nothing to work upon Let a Smith have Iron and a Mason Stone and they can make some Work but here God maketh all out of Nothing saith the Apostle Heb. 11. 3. Through faith we Understand that the World was framed by the word of God so that things which are seen were not made of things which do appear Briefly God made Something of Nothing and then out of that Something made All things as one well expresseth it That which Gen. 1. is called the earth and the water and the deep that first matter it was made out of meer nothing There is something out of nothing and then out of that first-Matter were all things framed There is all things out of something so as mediately or immediately all the Creatures come out of Nothing There is Non-ens negativum And so the first matter commeth out of nothing There is Non-ens privativum And so the other things they came out of that which is Non-ens tale a thing that had no naturall disposition to receive such a form And here is the omnipotency of God seen in both For it requires as much power to produce such and such formes as to produce that God Omnipotent in the Creation first matter out of Nothing and yet This God hath done And this should teach us both Obedience and Humility The consideration of the manner of making all things He made them all by his word Who are we that we should disobey the word of God which every Creature was framed by It is a shame for a man to be the worst thing in his house All the World is a house made for Man and man approveth himself the worst thing in the World if he disobey the Word of God Fire Haile Ice Snow fulfill thy Word saith the Psalmist He did but say Let there be light and the light presently shined How many words have we had Ten words of the Law as the Ten Commandements all comprized in two Words under the Gospell Repent and Believe and how many are unbelieving and disobedient still The Creatures cast shame upon us in this particular As they were made without Instruments by a sole word of Command so they were made of Nothing This should take down our Pride shall we be proud of the Creature That is to be proud of Nothing Proud of our parts or gifts Who art thou the Son of Adam vvho is Adam the Son of dust What is that dust The Son of nothing All resolveth it self into Nothing And certainly he that hath brought something out of nothing can quickly reduce our something to nothing again if we begin to be proud of it As he did the parts and power of Nebuchadnezzar when he took away his understanding and turned him to eat grasse with the beasts of the field Some thing ye have heard about the Things and the Order and the Manner and the Time Fiftly See now the End for which all things were made 5. To what end Solomon telleth you in one word That they were all made for the glory of God Prov. 16. 4. The Lord hath made all things for himself The Heavens declare the glory of God The firmaments shew his handy works Therefore this is the great improvement we should make of all the things that are made to read something of God in them And this is a duty that lyeth especially upon man Man as he is the most considerable part of the visible World so the only Creature that can consider the rest and it lyeth as a more strong engagement upon him to Glorifie God above all because no visible Creature can do it if man deny it And it lyeth as a more strong obligation upon Ministers to Preach the Word because Regularly none but they can Preach And also upon Kings to govern and Merchants to trade because none can govern none can trade in such things as they No none but Men can consider and praise God for what he hath done in the World Therefore every man should look at this great book of the Creature as that which is written all over with something of God Beloved There is many a man cast away for not reading when he is put to this book a Non legit here may destroy a man for not reading the book of the Creature Though some of us take it but for a morall fault Observe that Psal 28. 5. Because they regarded not the works of the Lord nor the operation of his hands he shall destroy them and not build them up Why Should God set before
us such a glorious piece as this is and shall not we consider it with a Contemplative eye An Artist thinketh himself negglected when he hangeth forth a Picture to be viewed and no body give it the beholding All creatures are active upon the stage of the world but Man is a Spectator as well as an Actor therefore they should observe not themselves Man is not to observe himself onely but what God doth in other Creatures onely but whatsoever God doth in other creatures and towards other creatures as well as in and towards themselves To this end God hath fitted them with Sense to let the consideration of him into their Understandings and set them in such a place of the world as that they are compassed about both with lasting works of Creation Sun Moon Stars Beasts Plants and the like and also with transient works of Providence that passe over their heads daily O therefore that men would praise the Lord and glorifie him in and for all these things that he hath made That is the Use we should make of it Rev. 4. ult Thou art worthy O Lord to receive glory and honour and power for thou hast created all things For thee they are and were created Rom. 1. 20. Therefore give him the glory of his power Who but God could have created such a Palace as Heaven and Pond as the Sea and Pavement as the Earth Give Him the glory of His wisdom O Lord how manifold are thy works In wisdom hast thou made them all It requireth wisdom to manage a great Family much wisdom to martiall a great Army What wisdom is it in God not onely to make but to govern all the host of all the Creatures In wisdom hast thou made them all in wisdom dost thou govern them Let all therefore give Him the praise of his Goodnesse for the next words there say The earth is full of thy riches namely of his goodnesse to the sons of men because for us were all these things made and we were made for God as ye heard before And therefore made after his own Image Now my Brethren What doth God expect from us in a way of requitall for all these things but that as they serve As the Creature serveth us so we should serve the Lord. us so we should serve him That seeing we are made after his own Image we should represent him in our dispositions and carriages towards the sons of men in being holy and meek and loving even as God himself is Whose image and superscription is this will God ask one day that is upon thy soul Is it God's after which thou art made or is it Satan's If the Devill 's give to Satan that which is Satan's God will give the Devill his due one day If he findeth his own Image spunged out of us and the Devill 's stampt upon us wo be to us As it is said of Queen Elizabeth that passing by the streets and seeing some of her Pictures hang for Signes that were not made like her she was angry and caused them to be pulled down and thrown into the fire Brethren I speak it with trembling Should any of you carry souls about you that do not look like God they must be thrown down and cast into the fire Thus have I run over a sort of Considerations from the great and glorious work of the Creation The next thing is to discourse of Christ as the Maker the Efficient Vers 3. All things were made by him and without him was made nothing that was made Vers 4. In him was life and the life was the light of men The Divinity of Jesus Christ under the tearm of the Word hath been asserted in the former Verse In the beginning was the Word and the Word was with God and the Word was God And this our Evangelist proveth by an Argument taken from the Creation First Generally from the Creation of all things All things were made by him and without him was not any thing made that was made Secondly More Especially from the Creation of living things living Creatures In him was life And Particularly from the Creation of Man The life was the light of men That part of the Argument which is most Generall lyeth in the third Verse Where ye have two things The Argument first Propounded And secondly Illustrated Propounded All things were made by him Illustrated Without him was not any thing made that was made In the Proposition are two things Here is the Effect All things made The Efficient By him Of the Effect I have spoken already I proceed now to the Efficient Christ the Eternall Word was the Maker of them All things were made by him The Eternall Word was the Creator of all things Ye shall have this truth established in the mouth of two or three witnesses Ephes 2. 9. Who created all things by Jesus Christ The Epistle to the Hebrewes will afford two pregnant testimonies Heb. 1. 2. He hath in these last daies spoken to us by his Son whom he hath appointed heir of all things by whom also he made the worlds This may seem something difficult because he speaketh of Worlds whereas we acknowledg but one Let it be considered whom he writes to the Hebrews whose custome it was to style God Rabboni Dominus mundorum The Lord of the Worlds They were wont to speak of three Worlds the lower World the higher World and the middle World The lower World containeth the Elements Earth and Water and Aire and Fire The higher World that containeth the Heaven of the Blessed And the middle World that containeth the Starry Heaven We now being acquainted with this Language and the Apostle writing to them he saith That God by Christ made the Worlds those worlds which they were wont to speak so frequently of And whereas one scruple might arise from this expression in the Text By him were all things made that in the Ephesians God created all things by Jesus Christ this to the Hebrews By whom he made the worlds As if Christ were onely an Instrument in the Creation and not the principall Efficient Therefore another place in this first Chapter will clear it which speaketh of Christ as the principall Efficient of all things Heb. 1. compare the 8th and 10th Verses together To the Son he saith Thy throne O God is for ever and ever And Thou Lord verse 10. hast laid the foundations of the earth and the heavens are the work of thy hands Namely thine that is the Son which he spake of before There is no great distinction here in all Objections for this Praeposition 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 doth not alwaies signifie an Instrument but sometimes it noteth a principall Agent It is said of God Of him and through him and to him are all things 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Rom. 11. 36. by him which we render through him Ye will have a more clear place Gal. 1. 1. Paul an Apostle not of man neither by
to the Captains when they went out against Absolom See ye do the young man no harm Plague Fire Sword see ye do no hurt to him they shall not be able to do any Lastly here is comfort in case of parting with the Creatures as we must all do at death Consider how mean they 4. In case of parting with the Creatures are I do but go at Death if I am a Believer from inferiour beeings to the superiour Beeing leave the creature but go to the Creator of all things to Him that putteth all the goodnesse all the sweetnesse into the creatures which I find in them or can expect from them and hath infinitely more goodnesse and sweetnesse in himself Shall I then complain of a Losse by death No I shall be a Gainer I leave the Stream and Rivolets and go into the vast Ocean of all blisse and comfort Shall a man that hath wandred and travelled all night by Star-light which can hardly help him to see his way complain when the Sun ariseth that is a better guid All the creatures they are but Stars they cannot all make Our great advantage by dying in the Lord. a day put them altogether it is but a dimn light you have from thence Let no man complain that he is hardly dealt withall that dyeth in Christ then the Sun riseth and he shall go to a higher light from the fruition of the creature to Him that made him even to God himself Therefore he may comfortably commit his soul to God as to a faithfull Creator as Peter saith Because God will find his own Image upon that soul and accordingly will own it for his own He may comfortably commit his body to the grave in assurance of the Resurrection upon this ground because Christ made all things and he that made the body of man out of the dust can raise the body of man out of the dust Our remainders after death cannot be so little as our beeing was before the world Cannot that God who fetched all things out of nothing repair our bodies out of something out of ashes out of dust Therefore when a man most needeth comfort here is consolation from hence even in case of parting with the creatures at death Ye have had the Instructions and Consolations I come now to the Directions in point of Practise and of them briefly First Seeing Christ is the Creator of all things and not Direct 1 any one thing was made without him Learn we from To fear God the Creator of all things hence First to stand in awe of him upon this ground Psal 33. 6 7 8. By the word of the Lord were the heavens made and all the hostes of them by the breath of his mouth He gathereth the waters of the Sea together as an heap he layeth up the depths in a store-house Let all the inhabitants of the world fear him All must fear him because he made all If they were at his making then they must be disposed of by him As we carry our selves to Christ so shall the creatures carry themselves to us serviceably or if we walk contrary to him no wonder if we find the creatures walking contrary to us Amos. 3. 12 13. Thus saith he will I do to thee O Israel And because I will do this to thee prepare to meet thy God O Israel For lo he that formed the mountains and created the winds that dwelleth upon the high places of the earth the Lord of hosts is his name He created all therefore prepare to meet him in a way of fear and reverence because if the Creator of all things be offended at us he will arm all things against us it is but giving the creature a commission and how soon is man destroyed If Christ say Take him Plague and consume him take him Fire and burn him take him Water and drown him Earth open and swallow him Hell be inlarged and dispatch him it must be so Therefore stand in awe of him Secondly Learn we from hence to commit our souls Direct 2 to him in well-doing as to a faithfull Creator That ye To commit our souls to him as to a faithfull Creator have 1 Pet. 4. ult Let them that suffer according to the will of God commit the keeping of their souls to him in well-doing as to a faithfull Creator If a Watch had understanding doubtlesse it would commit the keeping of it self to none but to him that made it because when it is out of frame he best knoweth how to set it right again because it is his own workmanship therefore he will have more regard to it than any other man will have Christ hath been the Creator of our souls let him have the keeping of them Cast all your care upon him for he careth for you saith Peter Shall not he that made thee be able to keep thee Doth not the Artificer love the work of his own hands He that hath given so much power to many creatures as to the Angels hath he not reserved much more power to himself who is able to keep and to keep to salvation Ye are kept by the power of God through faith to salvation How secure do men think themselves if some excellent creatures do but take care of them Suppose a great Prince should say to any of us that have a great many children Take no care for such and such a child send him to me I will take care for him How would such a person think himself at rest concerning that child With what security may we build upon the love of God in Christ if we commit our souls to him in well-doing as to a faithfull Creator Thirdly Learn we to get an interest in him as a Redeemer otherwise we shall have no more shew for Salvation Direct 3 than the brute beasts have for he is their Creator as well as To get an interest in him as a Redeemer ours All things were made by him He gave life to other creatures as well as to man Believe it whosoever thou art an Ox or an Asse may be saved as well as a Man or a Woman if that Man or Woman will not believe in Christ Thou art the workmanship of his hands true so is the brute beast It is not enough to be Christ's creatures we must be Christ's Members before we can get to Heaven Do not say He that madens will save us What saith the Prophet Isa 27. 11. It is a people of no understanding therefore he that made them will not have mercy upon them and he that formed them will shew them no favour It is not our being framed creatures by Christ but his framing the new creature within us to help us in the way to Heaven Give up your selves to Prayer as David doth Psal 119. 73. Thine hands O Lord have made and fashioned me give me understanding that I may learn to keep thy commandments He resteth not in his being made by God
Saviour telleth us there was none greater than John excepting Christ who had not a naturall generation Matth. 11. 11. Verily I say unto you Amongst them that are born of a woman there hath not risen a greater than John the Baptist This great John the first What is his Employment Certainly so honourable a Person must be called to some honourable service It is The employment of the Ministers of the Gospel is an honourable employment Luk 2. 11. Mar. 16. 6. To bear witnesse to the light than which no service is more honourable It is that which Angels have not disdained They ye know bare witnesse to Christ's Incarnation they tell the shepheards That to them is born in the City of Bethlehem a Saviour which is Christ the Lord. And then they bore witness of his Resurrection to women at the Sepulcher God the Father and the holy Ghost thought it no disparagement to them to bear witnesse to Christ God the Father at his Birth This is my beloved Son in whom I am well Matth. 3. 17. Matth. 17. 5. pleased and at his Transfiguration in the Mount And it is the great work of the holy Ghost in all his negotiations to the sons of men to testifie of Christ Joh. 15. 26. When the Comforter shall come whom I will send to you from the Father even the Spirit of truth he shall testifie of me There is his work I will not insist long upon this Let us learn onely from hence every one in his and her place to bear witnesse to Christ Ministers by preaching Christ as Paul did who desired to know nothing amongst his people but Christ and him crucified therefore he is called a Chosen vessell Paul is But to what end Act. 9. 15. The Lord said to him Go thy way for he is a chosen vessell to me to bear my name before the Gentiles and Kings and children of Israel Here is the Minister's work to bear Christ's name before the people like those Pitchers of Gideon Judg. 7. earthen pitchers indeed and so earthen vessells as Paul calleth them but they have a Lamp in them and are chosen vessells to bear the name of Christ to witness to this truth And so Believers in their conference should bear witness to Christ by telling one another what great things he hath done for their souls discoursing of him as the Disciples in the way to Emmans their talk was of Christ As people when they come from Market they tell of their penny-worths When people How to bear witnesse to Christ come from Sermons they speak what they have heard and what a good bargain Christ is All of all sorts are called to witness for Christ by their living and if they be called to it by their dying living to him dying for him there is witness born to Christ both these waies All are not indeed called to Martyrdom and so to testifie of Christ by their death but all are called to Testifie of Christ by their Life As ye read of some that professed God in their works so some confesse Christ in their lives those that shew forth the grace of Christ as Peter speaketh who are called out of darknesse into his marvellous Light Those that can carry themselves meekly towards the malitious and humbly towards the proud they may hereby by their Carriage bear witnesse to that meeknesse and humility which they receive from Christ as the head and fountain of it Whosoever hath received Christ Jesus the Lord truly he will walk in him not onely talk of him but confesse him not only with his mouth but his life Here is a way of witnessing to him That ye may be incouraged to witnesse for Christ take two Considerations First If we do not witnesse for Christ now Christ will one day witnesse against us Mal. 3. 5. I will come neer to you in judgment and I will be a swift witnesse against such and such sinners as he there mentioneth Christ himself will be a witnesse against us if we be not witnesses for him and a swift witnesse too And now beloved Consider with your selves what astonishment seized upon the souls of Joseph's brethren as soon as he stept up to witnesse against them and said I am Joseph whom ye sold into Egypt And yet he did this meerly to inform them and not to affright Gen. 45. 3. them Who can tell the horrour and amazement which will fall upon the souls of men when Christ will at the last day say I am Jesus whom ye Crucified and whom ye refused to believe and whose Word and Gospell ye have trampled under your feet Secondly Consider That if we do witnesse for Christ we shall have Three witnessing for us in whose Testimony we shall receive aboundance of Comfort First We shall have a witnesse without us and a witnesse within us and a witnesse above us Without us That is the Testimony of men that fear God If we witnesse for Christ They will witnesse for us even the Consciences of wicked men will be inforced many times to witnesse for us when their words witnesse against us But though they should not yet by faith the Elders obtained a good report Hebr. 11. 2. The Saints will have a good report amongst them that are Saints like themselves Jonathan will witnesse for David though he incurre Saul's displeasure for so doing Secondly We shall have a witnesse within us That is the Testimony of our Consciences Though there should be storms without yet there will be a calme within And it is the wind within that maketh the Earth-quake And the wind within that maketh the soul to quake Conscience is a witnesse within us Thirdly God is greater then our hearts He is a witnesse for us so saith Job Job 16. My witnesse is in Heaven and my Record is on high Though men upon earth should witnesse against him and though he should not at all times have the peace of his Conscience speaking good things for him yet he hath a witnesse above all His witnesse is in Heaven and his Record on high As Augustine saith Deus major Conscientia pro nostra Conscientia testatur That is one end why God will have men witnesse for him because he might have occasion to witnesse for them if time serve what a comfort is here to have him witnesse for us who is our Judge whose sentence will never Certainly go against his Testimony I have done with that and proceed now to another argument which the Evangelist useth to prove That Christ is the Fountain of Light namely from the effect of Illumination generall Illumination Vers 9. That was the true Light which lighteth every man that cometh into the World Here is both the Agent the Act and the Subject The Agent Christ under the name of true Light The Act Lightning The Subject Every man that cometh into the World That was the true Light Light ye know was the first distinct Creature that God made And as
the World and the World was made by Him and the World knew him not Ye have here the World in another sense The world in the beginning of the verse is taken for the whole Fabrick of Heaven and Earth as Aristotle saith The World is a Masse made up of Heaven and Earth In this sense it is said He was in the World the World was made by Him Now in the latter Clause of the verse The world knew Him not The World there is put for the Inhabitants of the earth for the men of the World Rom. 5. 12. The World and Men are all one By one man's disobedience sin entred into the World and death by sin and so death passed over all-Men Here is the World and all men The world was made by Him and the world that is the men of the world knew him not It is a Rule in Divinity Verba Cognitionis affectiones important c. Words of knowledge import affections and operate suitably So to know carrieth more then meer speculation When Christ is said to know us The Holy Ghost telleth us It is more then barely to take notice of us It is to take care for us Joh. 10. 14. Christ knoweth his sheep that is he taketh care of his Elect. And he is known of his that is He is served and obeyed and worshipped and believed on by them So the world knew him not that is the World worshipped him not as God The world did not owne Him and serve Him as became their Creator So as now the words thus opened The observation lieth clear before us namely That notwithstanding Christ's Observ being in the world and the world being made by Him the men of the world knew him not Take a place or two to clear up this especially in reference to the Gentiles for to them properly it belongeth I should have told you that the word World is sometimes confined to them If the fall of them be the diminishing of the world and the fall of them the riches of the Gentiles He came to his owne and his owne received him not That is did not know him 1 Joh. 2. 1. Therefore the world knoweth us not because it knew not him There is yet a clearer place 1 Cor. 1. 21. After that in the wisdome of God the world by wisdome knew not God All the wisdome the Heathens had could not raise them to a due knowledge of God The world by wisdome knew not God Christ was in the world but the world knew him not A threefold ignorance of Christ was found in all the Gentiles First They knew him not as the second person in the Trinity Secondly They knew him not as Mediator Thirdly They knew him not as Creator which is properly here spoken to He made the world and the world knew him not Let me run over these briefly first They knew him not 1. The Gentiles knew not Chtist as the second Person in the Trinity as the second person in the Trinity so they are said to have been without Christ and without God in the world Ephes 2. 12. speaking there of the Gentiles saith he At that time ye were without Christ being aliens from the Common-wealth of Israel and strangers from the Covenants of promise having no hope and without God in the World They had the great book of the Creatures to read but that did shew them nothing of Christ as the second person in the Trinity Naturall reason could never find out that Mystery in it selfe Therefore men when they go to find out this great mystery of the Trinity they are at their wit's end They might find out a God and that he was Good and Great and that he was One but to find out a Trinity of Persons a Father Son and Holy Ghost This they could not Take a curious piece a well drawn Picture he that seeth it may be able to say that he that drew it was a skilfull and exact Painter But whether an English man or a Spaniard or a Dutch man or an Italian that he cannot tell by the Picture why because he made this piece as an Artist but not as a German or English man Therefore he discovereth his Art by the piece but not his Country So God made the World not as Father Son and Holy Ghost Three in one and one in three All the works towards the Creatures works ad Extra are common to all the persons in the Trinity God as God made the world Therefore by the sight of the world men may be able to know that it is a God that made it and that this God is good because he made so many things useful in the world this God is wise because of the variety of the creatures and this God is One because of the order of things But to say This God is Three in One the Creation of the world doth not bear this If the works be ad Intra as Generation these are the works of some one Person but the works ad extra they represent the Godhead but not the Persons Secondly They did not know Christ as Mediator therefore 2. They knew not Christ as Mediator they raised up many Mediators 1 Cor. 8. 5 6. Though there be that are called gods whether in heaven or in earth as there be gods many and lords many But to us there is but one God the Father of whom are all things and we in him and one Lord Jesus Christ by whom are all things and we by him The Apostle doth here clearly allude to the custom of the Heathens who had two sorts of gods they had their dii Coelestes their supream heavenly gods which they worshipt as the Sun Moon and Stars and then besides these they had their dii Terrestres inferiour gods gods on earth who were men that lived upon the earth which were afterwards canonized and made gods That is the true meaning of this There be many that are called gods whether in heaven or in earth So there be gods many and lords many gods many those are their supream gods lords many those are their inferiour gods Baalim as they called him who was the first King of Babel and the first that was made a god and all those kinds of gods therefore after him were called Baalim as Caesar being the first Emperour all Emperours after him were called Caesars Now saith the Apostle To us is but one God not many but one Lord not many but one Mediator Christ Jesus Thirdly They knew him not as Creator therefore Paul 3. They knew not Christ as Creator when he came to Athens found them ignorant of this Greece was the Eye of the world and Athens was the Eye of Greece yet even at Athens Paul found an Altar To an unknown God and that same God was the God that made the world God the Creator Act. 17. 23 24. saith Paul For as I passed by and beheld your devotions I found an Altar with this inscription
found in this Relation as to take away the bitternesse of all other dispensations and providences though in other respects very averse Our Chroninicles tell us of King Edward the first when he was in forraigne parts newes was brought him at once both of the death of his father and of his son The King was exceedingly struck into sadnesse at the relation but especially at the death of his father For saith he I may have more sons but never another father We may have more friends and more estates if we lose our friends or estates but we can have no more fathers if we once lose our God we shall never have such a Father as he lose him once and all is gone Am not I said Elkanah to Hannah better to thee then ten sons Well may God say to us Am not I better to you then ten thousand sons and ten thousand times ten thousand estates All sweetnesse concenters in this Relation God is our Father we are his Children But there may be a great deal of wealth and honour 5. It is a safe estate and freedome and sweetnesse and yet no safety may attend this condition This is a safe estate that is the commendations of it This honour and riches and freedome and sweetnesse they shall all continue The servant he abideth not in the house for ever but the son abideth ever saith our Saviour Joh. 8. 35. Therefore fear not little flock saith Christ It is your Fathers pleasure to give you the Kingdome Nothing shall intervene so as to hinder a son from the Inheritance It is his Fathers good pleasure and his will shall stand to give them a Kingdome in the issue So it is clear that this is an high priviledge What use shall we make of it First examine whether we be thus preferred yea or Vse 1 no. It is that which almost every one in the visible Church Examine our selves wherher we be sons or not pretendeth to be a son and daughter of God It is therefore worth the while to try whether the Lord Jesus Christ hath made us partakers of this priviledge It is a use both for the assurance of the Saints and for the discarding of Hypocrits that are but pretenders to it They favour even those men of whom Christ saith You are of your father the Devill They pretend sonship to God Joh. 8. 41. We say they be not born of fornication we have one Father even God And yet Christ saith to them ye are of your father the Devill We are of God say they ye are of your father the Devill saith Christ One way to try this and the onely one that I will name is by the spirit of adoption If we be sons then God hath sent forth into our hearts the spirit of adoption by which we cry Abba Father This ye have expressely laid down in so many words Gal. 4. 6. Because ye are sons God hath sent forth the spirit of his Son into your hearts crying Abba father Wheresoever there is sonship there will be crying Abba Father Crying implyeth fervency of spirit as Why cryest thou to me faith God to Moses when he was in a great strait at the Red-sea Because both the profane persons and formall professors will put on for a share before we can break the childrens bread we must discard them from the comforts of this If crying Father and if praying argue my sonship Formality and Prophaneness reproved then I am a son saith the profane person for I say my prayers ever and anon Alas what is this to the purpose Thy praying is but craving yea thy praying is but houling in God's esteem Isa 7. 14. They have not cryed to me with their hearts when they houled upon their beds How irksom is the houling of dogs to the ears of men such is that which profane persons call Praying in the ears of God The truth is their praying is but a driving of contradictions because their life all the while giveth their tongue the lie Our Father saith the profane person which art in heaven and in the mean while he serveth his father the devill which is in hell Hallowed be thy Name so say his lips but in the mean time he dishonoureth God in swearing and lying and whoring and drinking and prophaneness Thy kingdom come and in the mean while he opposeth the Kingdom of Christ in his heart and in the lives of his Saints and doth what he can to hinder the comming of it Thy will be done in earth as it is in heaven and in the mean while he doth the will of Satan that will which the damned do in hell Give us this day our daily bread seemingly acknowledging that he receiveth all even his outward mercies from God and in the mean while perhaps sacrificeth to his own net commending his own skill for the estate he hath gotten Forgive us our trespasses as we forgive them that trespasse against us and in the mean while he goeth on in malice and envy sinning to his very hour of death as it were Lead us not into temptation in the mean while he tempteth the devill to tempt him He cryeth Deliver us from evill and delivereth himself up to evill while he saith so He layeth the reins upon the neck of his lusts that run away with him into all mischief Call you this praying I but saith the formall professor I pray and that frequently not in distress onely but haply keep a constant course of prayer Surely I must go for a child of God That we be not deceived let us consider It is one thing to draw nigh with the heart and another thing to draw nigh with the lips You know the complaint of Isaiah compare two places together Isa 1. 15. When ye so read forth your hands I will hide mine eyes from you and when you make many prayers I will not hear you And yet he complaineth of them by Isaiah Isa 4. They make many prayers and yet none heareth that prayer Why Because Isa 29. 13. This people draw near to me with their mouths but remove their hearts far from me Therefore they pray and their prayers are no prayers because their hearts are not in them I will not deny but many a formall professor may have attained to the gift of prayer but that which I make an argument of Sonship was a spirit of prayer the spirit of adoption by which we cry Abba Father What that is ye may see Zach. 10. 12. I will pour out upon Jerusalem the spirit of grace and supplication How worketh that They shall look upon me whom they have pierced and mourn for me as one mourneth for his onely son Wheresoever the spirit Spirituall Prayer looks up to Christ of prayer is there will be a looking up to Jesus Christ in all our devotions The spirit of Adoption that commeth from the Son guideth to the Son and taketh us along with him in all our addresses to God They that
be received Ephes 4. 24. Therefore as the Church is subject to Christ so let the wives be to their own husbands in every thing We should choose his Yoke as well as his Crown his Spirit to guide us as well as his Blood to redeem us to be subject to him as well as to be protected by him This is the first thing included in the receiving of Christ namely a present choosing of Christ upon Conjugall tearms Secondly Trust in him for ever after as our God so saith 2. To trust in him for ever after as our God the Text 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to trust that is Continue to believe in his name because every one that hath received him continueth to believe continueth to trust and to rely upon him and stay himself upon his God and to lean upon his Beloved as the phrase is in the Canticles As a woman that hath got an husband hath one to trust to for provision and direction and protection If David's wives be taken away he will rescue them if Ahasuerus his wife be in danger of Haman's plots her husband will relieve her The Soul before marriage to Christ was liable to all old debts the Law had a saying to her the Devill had a plea against her but now she is married all is laid upon Christ No action lies against the wife Now the soul hath an husband and accordingly she trusts in Christ and sendeth the Devill to Christ her Husband for an answer Thus you see what it Supposeth and Includeth Thirdly See what it Produceth namely Certain Effects 3. It supposeth certain Effects to witnesse the truth of the former Acts. 1. Receiving Christ produceth Love that bear witnesse to the truth of the former Acts to make it appear there were true Apprehensions in the Understanding and true Acts in the Will and they are diverse First The true receiving of Christ wheresoever it is it produceth a Prizing Love in the first place It is impossible but that the soul which hath received Christ indeed should prize him and love him because of the beauty and excellency in him 1 Joh. 4. 16. compared with vers 19. We have known and believed the love that God hath given to us Then followeth We love him because he first loved us Where there is a knowing and believing of God's love to us there will be a reciprocall love from us to God To him that believeth in Christ Christ is pretious It is not onely a love but a prising love 1 Pet. 2. 7. To you therefore which believe he is pretious They that have received Christ indeed will set a price upon him howsoever others value him Judas though he did converse with him not having received him by faith What a price setteth he upon him the price of a Slave thirty pieces of silver the very price that was to be given by a man that had bought a slave to be his servant a goodly price The Jews that bought him and Judas that sold him make no more of Christ but thus Now take the Soul which hath indeed received him and knoweth what is in him such a soul will not set Christ to sale no not upon any tearms Offer her Preferments Estates and Kingdoms and Worlds A goodly price for Christ the soul will say No he is infinitely more worth then all these To you that believe Christ is pretious because ye have received him Secondly It produceth a watchfull Fear Whensoever 2. It produceth a watchfull fear the soul receiveth Christ it will be afraid to lose him Having received a Kingdom that cannot be moved saith the Apostle Heb. 12. ult let us have grace to serve God acceptably with reverence and godly fear One would think all fear were now over No fear so much the more The Gospel that is the Kingdom of Heaven which is often so called in Scripture and it is a Kingdom that cannot be moved The Law that was taken away but the Gospell that cannot be moved no alteration of that We must never look for another Gospel than what is evidently laid down in Scripture A man that hath received this Gospel hath received Jesus Christ in it For this Manna commeth down in the dew of heaven Christ in the ministry of the Gospel And having received this Kingdom we shall not be moved Having received Jesus Christ let us serve him with reverence and god'y fear saith the Scripture There will be a fear where there hath been a receiving of Christ Kisse the Son Serve him with fear and rejoyce with trembling Psal 2. 11 12. I will allude to Act. 3. 11. ye read there in the foregoing Verse of a Creeple that was healed by Peter and John And immediately his feet and ankle bones received strength and he stood up and praised God What doth the man mean now to leave his leaping and skipping and come and clasp about Peter and John In all likelihood because he was afraid when they were gone his lamenesse would return again to him Such a disposition there is in every soul that receiveth Christ it is sensible of its having received health and strength and comfort from him Now lest his former lamenesse should return lest the lusts of his former ignorance should again prevail and those terrours of conscience under which it lay should come again the soul is desirous to hold Christ so as never to let him go Not that a soul that hath once received Christ can lose him for ever but because though it cannot wholly lose his presence yet it may lose a great deal of its comfortable communion which it had with Christ and God in him Therefore there will be a watchfull fear lest we should lose those sweet embracements which we have had from Christ Thirdly This receiving of Christ in truth produceth a 3. It produceth a spirituall life spirituall life He that hath the Son hath life he that hath not the Son hath not life 1 Joh. 5. 12. Men are now other kind of creatures than before they have motion from another principle then they had before As where there is life the soul setteth the body a working So when the soul hath Christ it receiveth life and motion and appetite and sense and grouth from him This true receiving of Christ produceth Fourthly As there is a prising Love a watchfull Fear and 4. I◠produceth fruit to God a Spirituall life so It produceth fruit to God Every soul that hath received Christ is more or lesse a fruitfull soul and doth not render fruit to it self as formerly but to God aiming at him and his glory in what it doth And this followeth upon the former I told you It was receiving of Christ upon Conjugall tearms as a woman receiveth an husband And this you must know that Christ hath alwaies issue by his wives The Lord Jesus hath no barren Spouse Every one that receiveth Christ for an husband he hath issue by her that soul bringeth forth fruit
something hard This is the Case for Christ to have taken our nature as it was in Adam while he stood cloathed in his Integrity and flood right in the sight of God had not been so much as when Adam was fallen and proclaimed Traitor As Bernard saith Quò pro me vilior eò mihi charior Domine Lord thou shalt be so much the more dear to me by how much the more thou hast been vile for me Here is Condescension indeed that Christ should stoop so low to take flesh and flesh wlth infirmities You know what King Ahasuerus did when he met with the passage in the Chronicles which laid open what good service Mordecay had done for him saith he What hath been done for this man and when he saw nothing was done he thinks presently of advancing him Hest 6. 3. Let us call to our selves and say What hath been done for this Jesus that hath done so much for my soul If nothing at all It is time to fall upon this duty and to think of some way to Testifie our thankfullnesse to Christ How shall we do it Christ is above we are not able to reach Him True but He hath members here on Earth though He be in Heaven He will take it as done to himselfe if ye do it to one of them Would you be thankfull to Christ be kind to his people Kings when they go their progresse and come to this and that Town and are presented with some summe of Money or piece of Plate the Present they receive to give the people content but they give away the thing to some of their Favourites So it is with Christ He giveth away the things ye tender him he taketh it well but he is content that his Children should have what you give He himselfe standeth in no need of what we can do but if we do it to his people he will accept it as if it was done to himselfe Matth. 25. 40. Therefore David maketh a full Confession of this Psal 16. 2 3. Thou art my Lord saith he my goodnesse extendeth not to thee but to the Saints on the Earth and to the Excellent in whom is all my delight You see what use may be made now of what was said of the Divine nature of Christ as he is called the Word what of his human nature as he is said to be made flesh and what followeth and what hath been said of the personall union of these two natures Ye may from hence take a view of one of the deepest The greatest mystery in the World is the Word made flesh Mysteries in all the World for it is one of the deepest in all Religions and the Christian Religion containeth such mysteries â—s the world cannot shew besides all the depths of the world are but shallow to the things of God Here is one of the deepest things of God The Word being made flesh There are three great Unions that are three great Mysteries the deepest of any that are The Substantiall union The Personall union The Mysticall union And this is one of them First The Substantiall union of three Persons in one 1. The Substantiall union Nature and one Substance So Father Son and holy Ghost make but One God Secondly There is the Personall union of two Natures 2. The Personall union in one Person So God and Man make but one Christ Thirdly There is the Union of Severall both Persons 3. The Mysticall union and Natures in one Mysticall body and so Elect Angels and Men and Christ together make but one Body whereof Christ is the Head Here are the three great Mysteries of Religion That I speak of is the second of these The Personall union In the first of these Divines use to observe that there is alius and alius but not aliud and aliud another Person but not another Thing The Father is Alius a Filio a distinct Person from the Son and the Son is Alius à sancto Spiritu a distinct Person from the holy Ghost but not a distinct Thing The Father Son and holy Ghost make but one Essence there is not aliud to be found in them In the Second is aliud but not alius a distinct Thing but not distinct Persons The Human Nature is a distinct thing from the Godhead and the Godhead a distinct thing from the Manhood but not a distinct person from the Manhood for God and Man make but one Person In the Third the Mysticall union there is both aliud and alius but not alienus There is distinct Things and distinct Persons the Angelicall Nature and Human Nature the persons of Believers and the Person of Christ but there is not alienus amongst them One of these are united to another in near relation they are not aliud one from another Though there be different things and different persons there is a union between them That is one thing that ye may learn from hence Secondly Ye may learn from hence a ground of that communication of Properties which is a very mysterious thing in Religion that which they call Communicatio Idiomatum a thing not so easily understood But by reason of this personall union of the two Natures in Christ there is a communication of Properties that is That which belongeth to the Manhood may be ascribed and given to Christ though denominated from the Godhead and that that belongeth to the Godhead may be denominated to Christ because it belongeth to the Manhood A man may truly say The Son of How the Son of Mary made the world and how the Son of God shed his blood Mary made the world Here Christ is denominated from his human Nature but it is Christ as God that made the world not Christ as the Son of Mary for he was not the Son of Mary till many thousand years after the world was made On the other side you may say The Son of God was crucified and shed his blood upon tâ—â— Crosse Here ye ascribe that to Christ under the denomination of the Son of God which belongeth to him as Man to shed his blood as God he hath none to shed But yet this may properly be said because the Person is both God and Man It is not without precedent in Scripture Joh. 3. 13. No man hath ascended up to heaven but he that came down from heaven even the Son of man which is in heaven Christ here when he conversed upon earth he said The Son of man was in heaven Why Because that Person was in heaven according to his Godhead and yet the Son of man denominated from the Godhead is said to be in heaven whereas nothing more certain that Christ-Man was upon earth and yet in heaven as God And so on the other side Act. 20. 28. Take heed to the flock over which the holy Ghost hath made you overseers to feed the Church of God which he hath purchased with his own blood God hath no blood yet God is
was by him as one brought up with him I was daily his delight rejoycing alwaies before him rejoycing in the habitable parts of the world and my delights were with the sons of men To manifest this before he did actually come in the flesh he was often pleased to take a body for a time and to lay it down again to appear in human shape praeludere Incarnationi as they use to call it He acted the Prologue of his Incarnation before he came really He appeared to Abraham and to Joshua But after he did assume a reall body into personall union with himself which he did never till now he took it of the Virgin Mary Here is infinite condescention that he who lay in the Father's bosome should not abhor the Virgin 's womb If it were such a commendation of Moses his faith Heb. 11. though he were in great pomp at the Court yet by faith he chose rather to suffer afflictions with the people of God than to enjoy the pleasures of sin for a season Though he were a favourite at Court yet he would joyn himself with a sort of poor Brick-makers Then what a condescention is it of the love of God that he would send his Son to dwell amongst us poor dust and ashes Then from Christ's dwelling amongst us as in a tabernacle 1. As our Shepheard he protects us in our fallen condition as it referreth to his condition as a Shepheard Something we may learn from hence Whom to have recourse to and to be protected by in our fallen and relapsed condition We were all as sheep going astray 1 Pet. 1. ult but are now returned to the Shepheard of our souls Poor sheep going astray and must for ever go astray they cannot know the way to return home But now Lo Christ commeth dwelleth and pitcheth his tents amongst us that under him we may have protection I shall want nothing saith David for the Lord is my shepheard Psal 23. ult Seeing Christ came to pitch his tents we should hear his voice My sheep hear my voice Now Christ is in heaven no voice is to be heard but by the Ministry therefore all those Exhortations which the Minister giveth to the people they all come from this great Shepheard and are accordingly to be heeded Eccles 12. 11. The words of the wise are as goads and as nails fastned by the masters of assemblies which are given by one shepheard Those Officers which Christ hath fastned in the Church they are as nailes fastned to the Assemblies Therefore such as listen to the voice of inferiour shepheard according to the Word when this great Shepheard shall come they shall receive a Crown of life Secondly Christ pitched his tents amongst us as a Sojourner 2. Christ as a Sojourner teacheth us to reckon our selves strangers in the world This should teach us to be conformed to Christ even in this particular He did but pitch a tent he did not take up his aboad upon the face of the earth We must carry our selves as strangers and pilgrims in the world and not look at our selves as at home here Ye know what the Psalmist saith I am a stranger Psal 39. 12. Hear my prayers O Lord and give ear to my cry hold not thy peace at my tears for I am a stranger with thee and a sojourner as all my fathers were Ye know what is said of Abraham Isaac and Jacob and those Patriarks of old they dwelt in tents saith the Apostle Heb. 11. 8 9. By faith Abraham when he was called to go out into a place which he should after receive for an inheritance obeyed and he went out not knowing whither he went By faith he sojourned in the land of promise as in a strange country dwelling in tabernacles with Isaac and Jacob the heirs with him of the same promise For he looked for a city which hath foundations whose builder and maker is God And so vers 16. Now they desired a better country that is an heavenly Beloved not to dwell hear Look about you and ye will find nothing but Tabernacles no Mansions till ye come to heaven While we live What are our bodies but as so many tabernacles to our souls It is a Scripture-expression 2 Pet. 1. 13 14. I think it meet as long as I am in this tabernacle to stir you up knowing that shortly I must put off this tabernacle While we live our bodies are but tabernacles to our souls and when we are dead the graves are but tabernaeles to our bodies Psal 16. 9. Therefore did my heart rejoyce and my tongue was glad moreover my body shall rest in hope Because neither must our souls remain long in our bodies nor our bodies in the grave If we will have Mansions we must look to Heaven In my Father's house are many mansions Therefore dream not of mansions here below Thirdly Christ pitched his tent amongst us as the Captain 3. Christ as a Souldier learneth us to be encouraged of our salvation Let this encourage us we have one that 's able to encounter with Satan if he bring all his forces into the field together Let him be a roaringlion here is a ruling Lion the Lion of the tribe of Judah that can encounter him that putteth upon us the whole armour of God They say that a very Army of Harts and Hares led by a Lion their Commander are able to do great matters because the Leader putteth courage into them by his valour Let Christ put courage into us As that great Commander said when the Scouts came and told him that so many thousands were comming against him more than they were Why saith he How many thousands do you reckon me for intimating that he was worth many thousands of his enemies So For how many thousands do you reckon Christ when you go out against the World and the Flesh and the Devill I passe to the next And we beheld his glory as the glory of the onely begotten Son of God Here is the speciall manifestation of Christ's glory The Disciples beheld the glory of Christ as the glory of the onely begotten Son of the Father Let us take the words as they lie Here the Spectators were the Disciples of Christ they were the men that beheld and in that respect they were the blessed men more blessed then the Fathers before them Matth. 3. 16 17. Blessed are your eyes for they see and your ears for they hear For verily I say unto you that many prophets and righteous men have desired to see those things which ye see and have not seen them and to hear those things which ye hear and have not heard them We beheld there is the View The word is emphaticall 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 we beheld as in a theater as men behold things presented to them on a Stage they behold them with a great deal of earnestnesse and delight That the word implieth Ye have heard what the Object is the glory of Christ
Demetrius and the Silver-Smiths cried-up Act. 19. 28. Diana of the Ephesians because they got their Living by making of her Silver-shrines The merits of Christ will bring us more than the shrines of Diana can bring to them We shall have Life and Life Eternall with this Life Therefore we have more cause to cry up Great is the Lord Jesus Great is the Lord the Rock of our Salvation and our Righteousnesse And the rather because in few words the best way in the World to cry down both sin and errour is to cry up Christ Lust and Heresie both will fall like Dagon before the Ark if Christ were once up in men's hearts There is use of other Arguments and Considerations as of the Law and the terrour of the day of Judgement and torments of Hell these have their place There is nothing so effectuall to draw sinners out of hell as the setting up of Christ when they know Christ is Crucified they then are crucified with Christ A man may be terrified with the threats of the Law and thoughts of iudgement to come and yet have an heart filled with lust all this while If Christ once come into the heart he driveth out these lusts before him The like may be said of Errors Corrupt opinions If the Sun of Righteousnesse comes in it is his beams that causeth all these shadowes to fly away nothing so soon nothing so sure Instance in Popery There may be great use of preaching against the particular points of it against Purgatory Transubstantiation and Worshipping of images But if once a man could set up Christ in his heart How soon would these vanish Saith Calvin Popery cannot stand but where the ignorance of Christ is brought in for the knowledge of Christ maketh Popery to fall Christ and Antichrist are like two buckets in a Well if the one goeth up the other goeth down Popery cannot thrive in that soyl where Christ is planted Thus much from these words the manner of his bearing witnesse He came crying Thirdly For the Time that I told you lay in these 3. The time when he did bear witnesse words This was he of whom I spake Whence it is gathered That John the Baptist having testified of Christ when he came to his Baptism continued his bearing witnesse to him now when Jesus was gone into the wildernesse which ye know was presently after he was baptized That difference is between this Evangelist and the former he relateth what they omitted and omitteth many of those things that they relate The other had spoken of the testimony that John gave to Christ before he made himself known our Evangelist speaketh nothing of this but falleth upon those Testimonies which he gave to Christ after he was made known Now he was made known at his baptism This is my beloved Son in whom I am well pleased Chemnitius maketh it appear plainly that what John saith in my Text was spoken after Christ was baptized when he was drawn aside into the wildernesse to be tempted of the Devill I said This was he yet he came after me and was before me Observe from hence this namely That the Baptist was honouring Christ when the devill was tempting of him Observ While Satan was using all his subtlery to overcome Christ in the wildernesse John is using all his earnestnesse and endeavour to cry him up to exalt him in the hearts of his hearers This is a speciall piece of Christian prudence for men to counterwork the devill to appear so much the more for Christ by how much the more Satan and his instruments appear against him There should be a kind of Antiperistasis in the soul of every believer as in the fire that burns hottest then when the aire round about it is coldest The middle Region is therefore coldest because the great heat of each takes the reflection from the lower and the upper heat above Such an Antiperistasis should be found in Christians they should be witnesses in the deadest times and their hearts should be softest in the hardest times and fullest of activity for Christ in the times of the greatest opposition against him As John is a honouring of him when the Devill is a tempting him The reason lyeth in that enmity which was put at first between the Serpent and the Seed of the woman for enmities work one against another contraries expell one another The Devill will be sure to crosse us if he can when we go to any spirituall duty as When the high Priest Zachary was standing before the Lord then it is said There was Satan standing at his right hand to resist him Zach. 3. 1. Therefore when we see Satan plotting any mischief we should stand at his right hand to resist him We should do what we can for Christ at such times more especially Then our service is most acceptable and most usefull For men not to be ashamed of Christ in the midst of a crooked and an adulterous generation yet for men to appear for Christ in a back-sliding generation run through the stories of all times and ye shall find this hath been the spirit of the Saints When Herod sought for Christ to destroy Matth. 2. 14. him in his Infancy then was Joseph and Mary most carefull of him and took him into Egypt When the Priests When Christ is most opposed then we should most appear for Him and Levites and Scribes and Pharisees did much oppose him in his Members then the Apostle's most of all appeared for him and tell the Rulers to their faces Whether it be better to obey God or man judge ye In the Primitive times when it was death to bear the name of a Christian then did Pausanius when they asked him what he was say My name is Christian and my sirname is Catholick His name was Christian to distinguish him from Hereticks and those that opposed Christianity I need not tell you of our Worthies in Queen Mary's daies that not onely by their Writings but by their Sufferings witnessed for Christ not onely in black and white but in red too It should be so still the very thoughts of their flames should kindle zeal in us Christ is opposed even at this day in many waies therefore we should strive for him There are many tempters and revilers now therefore Christ should have many Champions now Heaven and Earth may both teach us this lesson Time was when our Saviour came to the men of Bethlehem He came to his own and his own received him not they refused to entertain Christ as became him Then doth the Star from heaven own him that comes and sheweth Matth. 2. 9. the Wise-men where he was and standeth before the house Afterwards when his own rejected him Not him but Barabbas said they When the Jewes that pronounced Joh. 18. 40. him not worthy to live had got their ends then the Sun is darkned and the Earth quaked they owned their Lord and Maker then when the
the fulnesse of the Godhead In him dwelleth all the fullnesse of the Godhead bodily Not a parcell but all and bodily that is either really If ye take body as it standeth in opposition to shadowes and figures then the Godhead is said to dwell in Christ bodily in opposition to the shadowes Under the law the body dwelt figuratively in the Ark and thence the glory of the Lord filled the house But now it dwelleth in Christ as the substance of all those shadowes It dwells in him bodily Or if ye take body as it sometimes signifieth person The Hebrewes were wont to put the soul for the whole person so many souls went down with Jacob into Egypt The Greeks were Gen. 46. 27. wont to put body for the whole person I beseech you brethren by the mercies of God present your bodies as a living sacrifice so then to dwell bodily is to dwell personally Now the fulnesse of the Godhead dwells personally in Jesus Christ because he was the second Person in the Trinity The Son of God as full of the Divinity as the Father himselfe was The fulnesse of the Godhead dwelt as truly in the Son as in the Father Now Sonship implieth Identity of nature As if it will not be tedious to you Four things go to make up a perfect Sonship There Four things make up a perfect Sonship must be 1. Similitude 2. Procession and Production 3. Life and 4. Identity If any of these be wanting A person cannot be said to be the son of another I say Similitude Procession Life Identity There is a likenesse between the whitenesse of the wall and the whitenesse of the snow but no sonship between them because there is no production The whitenesse of the wall doth not produce the whitenesse of the snow Fire begets fire Here is a production But the fire is not the son of the fire because here wanteth Life The body of a living Man breeds worms Here is a production and life but yet the worm is not the son of Man because here is no Identity of nature The worm hath not the nature of man There must be a Coherence in all these four which you find in Christ in reference to God the Father There is a similitude He is the expresse Image 1. Similitude 2. Procession of his Fathers person There is a procession For the Son proceedeth from the Father and is begotten of the Father from all eternity There is Life For the Son hath Life 3. Life 4. Identity in himselfe as himselfe saith And there is Identity of nature The very same essence with that of the Father And a greater Identity then between any man and his son That take along with you too Take Abraham and Isaac Isaac hath the same nature with Abraham But how the same The same in species not in Individualls The same in kind not the same Individuall nature For it is possible that the father may be saved and the son damned or the son saved and the father damned But now the Lord Jesus Christ is the same Individuall nature with the Father because but one Deity and one Divinity and one Essence and the same Person pertakes of the same Individuall substance Here is the first fulnesse The fulnesse of Divinity Secondly There is in Jesus Christ A fulnesse of sufficiency Secondly a fulnesse of sufficiency for the work of the Mediator-ship which he undertook as God-man That which Divines call the grace of unction They speak of a double grace that dwelleth in Christ The grace of union namely that favour by which the human Nature was united Personally to the Godhead Secondly The grace of unction namely that anointing with the holy Ghost which Christ-Man had who is therefore said to be annointed with the oyle of gladness above his fellowes There is therefore this fulnesse of sufficiency because there was a fulnesse of Divinity there is therefore this grace of unction because by that grace of union Christ is therefore annoynted because the Manhood is so united to the Divinity The nearer any thing commeth to the Cause the more it taketh of the Effect Fire is the cause of heat therefore the nearer a man stands to the fire the hotter he is the farther off the lesse he partakes of the influence of the fire The Human Nature having a union with the Godhead must needs partake of all grace Write the letters of the Alphabet upon a seal and then put that upon the wax the wax will bear the image of all the letters Here is the Divinity The Godhead falls upon as it were and takes to it self the whole Manhood and therefore the Manhood bears the impression of the whole Godhead as far as the Manhood is capable Now indeeed it was necessary there should be a fulnesse of sufficiency in Christ because as Mediator he had three great Offices to discharge and every one of them requireth a fulnesse without which he could not have gone through with his work Accordingly ye shall find A three-fold fulnesse in Christ as to his Offices a fulnesse of power in Christ as King a fulnesse of wisdom in Christ as Prophet and a fulnesse of righteousnesse in Christ as he was the Priest of his Church which three make up the fulnesse of Sufficiency There is in Christ as King a fulnesse of power That is 1. As King the fulnesse of Power it which he speaks of Matth. 28. 18. Jesus came and spake to them saying All power is given to me in heaven and in earth Go ye therefore and teach all Nations and I will be with you to the end of the world Christ hath all power in Heaven and Earth yea and in Hell too Of the two former this place speaks All power is given to me in heaven He hath the Angels in heaven at his command and can send them out as an heavenly hoast to assist his people All power is given to him on earth over all the Princes in the world Therefore he is King of kings and Lord of lords And this he telleth his Apostles before he sent them to preach the Gospell to encourage them Preach to all Nations all Nations all Mankind All power in heaven and in earth is given to me Therefore go preach I am with you And as all power in heaven and earth is given to Christ as King of the Church so all power in Hell Ye have an expression that may haply bear this sense Rev. 1. 18. I am he that liveth and was dead and behold I am alive for evermore Amen And have the keys of hell and of death Christ hath the keyes of hell and can send whom he will thither and keep whom he will from thence The Keys argue Power It is a metaphor taken from Conquerors when they take a City they have the Keys thereof delivered into their hands in token the City is now at their command If Hell be here taken for the Grave
hath said is True and whatsoever he hath done is Just whether we can believe the truth of the one and consent to the Justice of the other yea or no. Therefore it is good to take the counsell of Augustine Vis tu disputare mecum Potiùs admirare mecum Wilt thou be disputing with me rather wonder with me and cry Oh Profunditas Oh the depth Let us both thou and I agree in fearing and trembling at the Counsels of God lest we both perish for our Curiosity in searching too farre into them And of all Disputers none more guilty in this kind than the Arminians therefore I name them Men that take upon them to state the Decrees of God as if they had been of his Councill when he made them men that seem to wade where Paul was past his depth which made him cry O the depth They make it clear to you to give you a reason of all God's Decrees if you take for granted what they say If you ask them Why Peter was elected and Judas not they say Because God foresaw Peter would believe and Judas not Why Peter was saved and Judas not Because Judas willed to persevere in sin and Peter did not Are not here men of God's Council that leave nothing unsearched Saith Paul when he was discoursing of these high points Rom. 9. 13 14. It is written Jacob have I loved and Esau have I hated What shall we say then Is there unrighteousness with God God forbid He speaketh as a man puzl'd and non-plussed at the thoughts of this how God should come to chuse Jacob and hate Esau He saw no unrighteousnesse with God God hath done it and therefore Just And yet these people speak as if they could have fetched Paul out of his non-plus which is but to say That God foresaw that Jacob would believe and Esau would not therefore he loved the one and hated the other So as a man according to this reckoning may learn more in Arminius his School in a few daies then Paul had learned in the third heavens Let us take this for a conclusion As God cannâ—◠〈◊〉 seen in his Essence so not known in his Counsels to any man on this side Heaven 2. The second Use is this No man hath seen God at any time Why then let us all from hence be set to long for Use 2 heaven where we shall enjoy that which is not attainable by any man here below a sight of God a beatificall sight a scientificall sight ye shall have them both there in one place 1 Cor. 13. 12 13. Now we see through a glasse darkly but then face to face there is the beatificall Now I know in part but then shall I know even as also I am known there is the scientificall St. John tells you in another place a speech that might set the hearts of the people of God a leaping within them for joy to think of that day 1 Joh. 3. 2. Beloved now are we the sons of God and it doth Excellent things are spoken of the City of God not yet appear what we shall be but we know that when he shall appear we shall be like him for we shall see him as he is Who would not long for this day and for this appearance When he shall appear we shall see him as he is No day so joyfull as this to the people of God The Sabbath that is a joyfull day therefore the Saints have learned to call the Sabbath a delight as it is in Isaiah Behold here a rest for the people of God an eternall Sabbath a Sabbath that hath no working-day after it a Sabbath which whosoever hath once arrived at shall rest from his labours for evermore It was a joyfull day that when the people of Israel passed over Jordan and got into the land of Canaan which they had been so long looking for Think of that spirituall Canaan of which the other was but a type flowing with better milk and hony in likeness to God and vision of God We shall be like him and see him as he is If Moses longed for that think what cause the people of God have to long for the other because there they shall have the sight of God The year of Jubilee was a joyfull time before the appearing of Christ When we shall be restored to that we fell from in Adam we shall partake of the glorious liberty of the sons of God as the Apostle speaketh But that which is so joyfull is the sight of God which cannot be attained till then The very sight of Ghrist in the flesh afforded much joy Simeon got him in his arms and desired to die Now let thy servant depart in peace for mine eyes have seen thy salvation The Greeks Joh. 12. they came to Philip and said Sir we would see Jesus It was a joyfull sight to see Christ even in the flesh What is it then to see Christ in his glory and God in his Essence as far as a finite creature can be capable of such a sight If the Disciples upon the Mount were so over-joyed with the sight of Christ and two glorified creatures with him Moses and Elias so as Peter forgot himself there What joy will there be in the souls of men that come to see Christ attended with thousand thousand times ten thousand Saints and Angells not Christ transfigured but Christ in his utmost glory Wonder not if I speak but Balbusantèr of these things for all words come short let us make it up in affections Learn to long for this sight and for that place where it is attainable But then take this with you before I leave the Point Caution how to walk that we may see God Be carefull as you desire to have that which you cannot attain here a beatificall and scientificall sight of God be carefull to walk in Purity and in Peace for the sight of God is promised upon these conditions First In Purity Matth. 5. 8. Blessed are the pure in heart for they shall see God It is not for every eye to see 1. In Purity God the pure in heart they shall see him Sore eyes cannot endure to see the light impure souls shall never be honoured with the sight of God The Jews whom Christ was speaking to here were men that stood much upon legall purifications He putteth them off from them and saith Blessed are the pure in heart A man that was not legally pure might not come to see God in the Sanctuary so will morall uncleanness much more keep us from the sight of God in Heaven Walk in Purity I and in Peace too so saith the Apostle Heb. 12. 14. 2. In Peace Follow peace with all men and holiness without which no man shall see the Lord. As not without holiness so not without peace He that hopeth to see the Prince of peace in another world to his comfort must carry the Son of peace here That of Augustine is an
of the Father implieth 2. It teacheth us to set our affections upon Christ the dearnesse of affection between the Father and the Son And this teacheth us who are bound to be followers of God as dear children to set our affections upon Christ because God doth so He who is the Son of God's love should be the object of our love God hath a bosome for Christ we should have a bosome for Christ too It is said of Ignatius that after his death his body being opened the name Jesus was found written in his heart That is a fable yet hath a good morall every soul should have Jesus written in the heart because the love of the heart should be bestowed upon Christ as the noblest object and best deserving it Again ye have an expression that comes home to that in the Text Cant. 1. 13. ye shall see where the Church laid Christ A bundle of myrrhe is my well-beloved to me He shall lie all night between my breasts Here the Church maketh a room for Christ to lie in her bosome This is a most significant expression This comparing Christ to a bundle of myrrhe which is of a bitter tast but a sweet smell And so fitter to represent Christ Crucified in whose death there was a concurrence of these two bitternesse and sweetnesse Nothing so bitter in it self as the passion of Christ the token of which was the paschall Lamb which was to be eaten with bitter herbs He indured more then we can comprehend His owne soul onely could know that bitternesse As there was a great deal of bitternesse in it so a great deal of sweetnesse too as in myrrhe He offered himselfe to God a sacrifice of a sweet smelling savour Ephes 5. 2. saith the Apostle Myrrhe they say is of speciall use to keep from putrefaction to dry up moist humours therefore they took myrrhe to inbalm Christ's body withall And such drieth up the superfluous humours of the soul As Physitians say That in nature a bundle of myrrhe between the breasts is Cordiall surely we have no such Cordialls as Christ in the bosome Therefore A bundle of myrrhe my beloved is to me He shall lie all night between my breasts Nothing so bitter as my sins were but the crucifying of Christ and yet nothing so sweet as that Christ was crucified for my sins to take them away Therefore let us find a bosome to lay Christ in for the time to come If we will be glad of his bosome when we die He will be content to lie in ours now if we will but receive him Certainly it concerneth us to know what we do with our affections How we bestow our love Loe here is an object to be beloved more then the wife of the bosome more then the husband of the bosome Here is the Mediator in the bosome If any thing will draw-out love from us it is the consideration of that love which he hath shewed to us Love is the Load-stone of love See how he Amor magnes amoris hath opened his bosome to us how he hath exceeded all the patterns of love We find in Scripture Rebecca loved Jacob better then Esau Therefore she put him into a way of getting the blessing And when Jacob was afraid of the event lest his father should curse him The curse be Gen. 27. 13. upon me my son saith she The Lord putteth us into a way of getting an eternall blessing from God the Father and for the procuring of this he himselfe is become a curse for us He was made sin for us and a curse that we might be made the righteousnesse of God in him Jacob loved Rachel better then Leah therefore was content to serve so many years For us the Lord took upon him the form of a servant and in that form served for us three and thirty years and more here in the flesh Jonathan loved David and to manifest his love he put his owne garment upon him Christ so loved us as to cloath us with his owne righteousnesse David loved Mephibosheth and therefore set him at his owne Table to eate bread continually though he were lame Christ so loveth us notwithstanding all our lamenesse and imperfections as to provide a Table for us where we shall one day sit down with Isaac and Jacob in the Kingdome of Heaven Beloved do you provide a room for Christ in your bosomes and he will provide a room for you in Abrahams bosome yea in his owne Thirdly This being in the Fathers bosome implieth Communication 3. It teacheth us to go to Christ for illumination of secrets Let us learn from hence to go to Christ for Illumination that he who knowes the secrets of the Father would discover them to us so farre as they are necessary for our salvation or the edification of our brethren Whither should we go but to the great Counsellour for advice The Disciples took this course Luk. 11. 1. One of the Disciples said to him Lord teach us to pray So Lord teach us to hear Lord teach us to meditate and Lord teach us to conferre to go to Christ for all teaching If any man want wisdome let him aske it of God Jam. 1. 5. Who giveth to all men liberally and upbraideth not we cannot be wise to Salvation unlesse Christ be made wisdome to us otherwise the Devill will be too hard for us he is so cunning and subtile as to make fools of us As soon as a subtile man will cheat a Child of what he hath so soon will the Devill cheat us There are wiâ—es of the Devill depths of Satan mysteries of Iniquity How shall we be able to shun these to avoid the danger of them if we be not instructed by Him who knoweth the secrets of the Father As there are mysteries of Iniquity so of Godlinesse too The Gospell it selfe Paul calleth it wisdome in a Mystery And that even amongst the perfect 1 Cor. 2. 6. Howbeit we speak wisdom amongst them that are perfect ver 7. We speak the wisdome of God in a mystery Which mystery wisdome in a mystery such is the Gospell So mysterious that one mystery is wrap't in another wisdome in a Mystery and that hid and that amongst the perfect How shall we come to find out this wisdome if the Lord Jesus the wisdome of God be not made wisdome to us As there are mysteries in every point of Doctrine so there are secrets in every point of Practice which without the help of Christ we cannot come to be made masters of Psal 25. 14. The secrets of the Lord are with them that fear him In every duty we can put our hands to there is a secret It is a Common thing to pray but to pray in the Holy Ghost is a great secret It is a Common thing to come to the Lords Table but to discern the Lords body that is a secret It is a Common thing to hear the word but so as it may be mixt